
























































































































































































































































































































V 


/ 


A 

NARRATIVE 

OF A 

VISIT TO THE COURT OF SINDE; 

A 

SKETCH 

OF THE 

HISTORY OF CUTCH, 

FROM ITS FIRST CONNEXION WITH THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT 
IN INDIA TILL THE CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY OF 1819 ; 

AND SOME 

REMARKS ON TE1E MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 

OF BHOOJ. 


By JAMES BURNES, M. D., F. R. S. 


OF THE BOMBAY MEDICAL STAFF ; 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH, &C. 


Presented by his Excellency Major-General Sir John Malcolm , G. C. B., Governor 
in Council, to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 


BOMBAY, 1830. 

PRINTED AT THE EXPENCE, AND UNDER THE AUTHORITY, OF 

GOVERNMENT. 

EDINBURGH : 

PUBLISHED BY ROBERT CADELL; 

AND WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & ARNOT, LONDON. 














CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

\ 

Preliminary Observations relative to the Map of Sinde, ^ 
Introductory Letter, .... 7 

Narrative op the Visit to the Court op Sinde, 9 

Remarks on Alexander’s Route,, . . 136 

Sketch of the History op Cutch, . . . 143 

Preliminary Notice, . . . . 145 

Section I—Introductory Outline of the History of 

Cutch before the British Connexion, . . 147 

Section II. — From the Commencement of the British 

Connexion to the Conclusion of the Treaty of 1816, 162 
Section III—From the Conclusion of the Treaty of 

1816 to the Conclusion of the Treaty of 1819, 194 

Postscript, 1829, . . . . 221 

Addenda, ..... 228 

Medical Topography of Bhooj, . . . 241 


Map of Sinde, facing the Title-Page, 

Map of Cutch, facing . . . 145 

Genealogical Table, facing . . . 142 





















'■ . . 









. 




















. 







, 









































' 




























VISIT 


TO THE 


COURT OF SINDE. 


















'nnet 


vVajt^cr 
id fitruia. ° 


J&ryalm 


\Tom 


f />.dtsetu,r Bund 1 . 

|| 

fiddlier. 


finite ha Wicf 


\/teu>maAsa, fiet.js. 
■%\ZC7ia,rye An Ae>i. 


Kaiid m poor 

&&cc6cme 


\tri/£row 


f ucfco\v- 


^Man7coaf\ ; 


*oorv . 


j a.asf floii7if7~ies adjacent 
io illustrate a/ 
j Memoir ore lie forma tic a, add 
the afie rot lores of the 
Eastern Branch of the //7(t//S 


oWi/xva. 


)Jiri)oort 


Scale in British Miles 











fZod"Ce Cage /4-f) 














































































































































































































EXPLANATORY OBSERVATIONS 


RELATIVE TO THE 

MAP OF SINDE. 


I have carefully examined all the maps of Sinde 
in common circulation, but have found none so 
generally correct as the one from which the pre¬ 
fixed, as far as it relates to that country, has been 
partly compiled. It was sent to me while on my 
route to Hyderabad, by my brother, who had 
copied it from “ A Sketch of the Indus from Shi- 
karpoor to the Sea, by Samuel Richards, 1810,” in 
the Quarter-Master General’s Office, Bombay; a 
delineation which must have been constructed, I 
think, from native information. I have made a few 

additions to it, as well as some alterations, which 

* * 

are, I believe, very nearly correct; although, as I 




4 


MAP OF SINDE 


bad not even a compass with me, and could judge of 
distances only from doubtful information, and the 
time occupied in passing from one station to another, 
it cannot be considered entitled to the same credit as 
a map constructed on mathematical principles. 
While I say this, however, I am free to express 
my conviction, from personal observation, that it 
is a truer delineation of Sinde, and its grand fea¬ 
ture the Indus, than any which has hitherto been 
published in Europe. 

There are many serious objections to a map of 
a country like Sinde ever being critically correct. 
Some of these will be noticed in the course of my 
narrative ; and I may remark here, in addition, 
that the inconstancy of the Indus itself is an in¬ 
surmountable obstacle to any thing like accuracy 
in the representation of that river. 

These observations, however, apply only to the 
sketch of Sinde. The delineation of Cutch, the 
Bunnee, the Northern Runn, Puchum Island, the 
Koree river, &c. will be found strictly correct; be¬ 
ing, in fact, a reduced copy of a map compiled from 
actual measurement and observation by my bro¬ 
ther Lieutenant Alexander Burnes, assistant quar¬ 
ter-master-general of the army, and intended to il¬ 
lustrate that officer’s memoir on the eastern mouth 
of the Indus and the formation of the Runn. 

The dominions of the Ameers of Sinde extend 
from the district of Shikarpoor on the frontier of 
Cabul, and the island of Bukkor in the Indus, along 


MAP OF SINCE. 


5 


the level plain, watered by that river, to the sea; 
a space of about two hundred and fifty miles. 
Their general boundaries are the British princi¬ 
pality of Cutch, and the Indian Ocean to the 
south ; the kingdom of Jessulmere and the Regis- 
tall, or Sandy Desert, to the east; the mountains 
of Belochistan on the west; and the provinces of 
Seewistan and Bahawulpoor on the north. The 
Indus traverses the country in a direction nearly 
diagonal; fertilizing the soil in its course, but, like 
the Nile, often proving pernicious to those who 
dwell on its banks, by the swamps which its an¬ 
nual inundations create. The temperature in the 
summer months is high, and proportionally low 
in the winter season. While I was in Hyderabad 
in January 1828, rain fell in torrents for many 
days, attended with a sensation of more piercing 
cold than I had ever experienced even in Europe. 

The capital of Sinde is Hyderabad, situated 
about 130 miles from the sea, on the eastern side 
of the river. Its population may be estimated at 
20,000 souls ; and that of Tatta, the only other 
city of note in the province, at 40,000- 




























\ 

















■V 




. 











. 




















I 















INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 


7 


INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 


Bhooj Residency , 1 ()th June 1828. 

To the Resident in Cutch., 

Sir,—I have the honour to submit to you some 
observations on my late visit to Sinde, together 

with a few remarks, which may probably be con- 

•• 

sidered of importance, on the actual government of 
that country. As I have had an opportunity, which 
no European officer ever before enjoyed, of being 
intimately acquainted with their Highnesses the 
Ameers, and as I was at some pains, during my 
residence at their capital, to ascertain their charac¬ 
ters and habits, I am not without the hope of 
bringing to the notice of government some new 
and interesting particulars regarding the singu¬ 
larly-constituted court of Hyderabad. 

I was indeed allowed little leisure for writing 
while in Sinde ; and as I left that country under an 
impression that I should immediately return to it, 
I was less minute in my inquiries than I would have 
otherwise been ; though I had nevertheless collect¬ 
ed a small stock of information, which I flattered 
myself might be of some importance to govern¬ 
ment. Since my return to Cutch, however, I have 
had an opportunity, through your kindness, of 
perusing several documents on the subject of Sinde, 
and I have been surprised to find, that most of the 


8 


1NTRODUCTORY R ETTEIt. 


matter relative to its history, resources, &c. which 
I proposed to communicate as new, is already on 
record, in a form which I have no expectation of 
equalling, in the various reports of Messrs Crow, 
Seton, and Ellis, and also in Pottinger’s Travels 
in Belochistan. 

. Under these circumstances, I fear that little 
more remains for me than to give a mere personal 
narrative of my proceedings. But, even in pur¬ 
suing this apparently easy course, I shall encounter 
some difficulty. An official form is certainly not 
the best suited for detailing the impressions made 
upon my mind, by the scenes through which I 
passed ; nor ought these probably to constitute the 
subject of the following pages. Still as govern¬ 
ment, by their letter of the 23d April last, have 
left the nature of my report in a great measure to 
myself, I must rely on the kind consideration of 
the Honourable the Governor, to pardon the intro¬ 
duction of matter, which, although unnecessary in 
a public point of view, may not, I hope, be devoid 
of interest to himself and his colleagues.—1 have 
the honour to be, &c. 

James Burnes. 


This letter originally formed part of the narrative, but has 
been detached from it, in order to divest the paper as much 
as possible of its official shape ; and, for the same reason, the 
numbers of the paragraphs have been omitted. 


NARRATIVE OF A VISIT 


TO THE 

COURT OF SINDE. 


Ever since the final occupation of Cutch by the 
British troops in 1819, our government has been 
brought in close connection with Sinde, and at¬ 
tempts have been made on our part to cultivate 
an amicable intercourse with the Ameers. But 
these haughty and jealous chieftains, who, from 
the first, had viewed the extension of our Empire 
in this direction with distrust and apprehension, 
uniformly maintained a cold and unfriendly attitude 
towards us. Treaties had been entered into, but 
without any feeling of cordiality on their part; 
no European officer was allowed to cross the fron¬ 
tier from Cutch ; and even an envoy, who had 
proceeded from Bombay to Sinde, in 1820, on the 
invitation of their own minister, was coolly re¬ 
ceived at their court, and abused after he left it. 



10 


VISIT TO THE 


It had been an object of policy to avoid a war 
with the Ameers ; but the British government 
had, nevertheless, been forced on two occasions, one 
so late as 1825, to assemble large bodies of troops 
in Cutch, in order to awe them into the maintenance 
of treaties, and to prevent their taking advantage of 
our being engaged in the Bhurtpore and Burmese 
operations, in order to invade our territories or those 
of our allies. It is scarcely to be doubted that the 
court of Hyderabad gave protection and support 
to the Meeanah plunderers who infested and de¬ 
vastated Cutch in 1825 ; and, indeed, every thing 
led to the impression, that it was the terror of our 
power alone which had prevented the Ameers from 
openly declaring war against us, and that they had 
no wish whatever to keep up friendly relations 
with us. Their distrust and jealousy were under¬ 
stood to extend equally to the government and its 
European servants; and nothing appeared more 
improbable than that a British officer should be 
invited, on any pretence whatever, to visit Sinde. 

In this state of affairs, considerable surprise was 
excited, when, on the 23d of October last, a letter 
of the most friendly nature was received from the 
Ameers by the Resident in Cutch, requesting that 
I should be permitted to proceed without delay to 
Hyderabad on account of the alleged sickness of 
Meer Mourad Ali, one of the principal chiefs. As 
private reports did not represent the disease of 
his Highness as dangerous, it was now our turn 

4 


11 


COURT OF SINDE. 

to be suspicious; and many and various were the 
surmises formed as to the real object of the re¬ 
quest. Some maintained, that, as peace had been 
restored in India, by the fall of Bhurtpore, and 
the termination of the Burmese war, and as the 
Russians had entered Persia, the Ameers had 
taken this mode of prudently making friendly ad¬ 
vances to our government. Few gave them cre¬ 
dit for sincerity in the reason assigned ; and seve¬ 
ral of my friends were strongly of opinion that I 
ought not to venture into Sinde without some 
specific assurance of protection. 

For my own part, I had ever felt a feverish 
anxiety to cross the forbidden frontier, and parti¬ 
cularly to view the classic river Indus. Nothing 
could, therefore, be more satisfactory to me than 
the invitation ; and, without considering whether 
the undertaking involved danger or not, I prepar¬ 
ed to enter upon it with the best possible spirits and 
without a moment’s delay. My arrangements were 
soon completed ; and, on the evening of the 25th, 
I commenced my march, accompanied by the 
Sindian vakeel or agent at Bhooj whom the 
Ameers had ordered to attend me, together with an 
escort composed of a small detachment of the 21st 
regiment of native infantry, a few troopers of the 
Poonah auxiliary horse, and about a dozen horse¬ 
men in the service of his Highness the Rao of 
Cutch. The Sipahis * were the picked men of the 


* Vulgo , Sepoys. 


12 


VISIT TO THE 


Bhooj brigade, who had been selected for their 
size and appearance, and they attracted much no¬ 
tice and admiration during my stay in Sinde. 

It was not long until I discovered that my 
attendant, the vakeel, had been placed near me 
by his suspicious masters to gain a knowledge of 
my temper and proceedings. I took my measures 
accordingly ; but in the journey afterwards, he 
was ever in the way to prevent my obtaining cor¬ 
rect information, and on more than one occasion, 
I found that he had even deceived me. He was 
a supple and deceitful Hindoo, named Gopaldass ; 
one of the few of his religion, who still exercise a 
little influence at the intolerant Court of Sinde, 
from their being more patient and expert in poli¬ 
tical intrigue than the Mahommedans. He had 
so far gained the confidence of his masters, as 
to be deemed worthy of being employed to watch 
the motions of the vizier of Cabul, and had ac¬ 
quired, in that theatre of oriental diplomacy, a 
competent knowledge of the arts of dissimulation 
and falsehood. Soon after my arrival at Hydera¬ 
bad, I was under the necessity of forbidding him 
my presence; having found that he repeated with 
exaggeration whatever fell from me to the Ameers 
and their minister, Meer Ismael Shah. 

On my arrival at Luckput, on the 28th, I gave 
orders for the immediate embarkation of my bag¬ 
gage, and was much surprised when he informed 
me that he durst not cross with me into Sinde 


COURT OR STNDE 


IS 


without another express order from Hyderabad. 
It was in vain that I threatened to return instant¬ 
ly to Bhooj, and pointed out to him the responsi¬ 
bility he incurred, by insulting the British go¬ 
vernment in detaining me after so pressing an in¬ 
vitation from the Ameers. He declared that it 
would cost him his life should he venture to take 
another step ; and at last confessed, that he had 
not even communicated to his court, the fact of my 
having consented to accompany him, from a fear, 
as he affirmed, that I might change my mind, and 
bring down ruin and disgrace upon himself. No¬ 
thing could exceed my chagrin at this communica¬ 
tion ; but as it was evident the Ameers were not in 
fault, I deemed it prudent quietly to await the re¬ 
turn of a messenger whom he despatched. 

The city of Luckput is a large fort of an irre¬ 
gular polygonal shape, two miles and a-half in 
circumference, situated on a gravelly ridge at the 
western extremity of Cutch, on the bank of the 
Koree river, or eastern branch of the Indus, into 
which the tide flows, and which is navigable for 
boats of considerable size, as far up as the town. 
It was founded by Rao Gore, about seventy years 
ago, and derives its name from the great-great¬ 
grandfather of the present prince of Cutch. It 
was an open paltry village till the beginning 
of this century, when it was fortified by Futteh 
Mahommed, the renowned vizier or jemidar, whose 
discerning eye discovered in it a highly favourable 


14 


VISIT TO THE 


situation, as well for advancing the commerce of 
his own country as for repressing the encroaching 
power of Sinde, and who used every exertion to 
make it a large and populous city. The inhabitants, 
however, do not at present exceed 6000 souls ; con¬ 
sisting chiefly of mercantile speculators from other 
countries, and the families of Hindoos who have 
been driven from Sinde by the intolerance of the 
Maliommedan faith. The walls have suffered less 
from the earthquake of 1819 than those of most 
towns in Cutch, and are at present in a state of 
good repair; but the houses of the inhabitants, 
which occupy only about a third of the area inside, 
are much dilapidated, and of a mean description. 

Futteh Mahommed, who has just been men¬ 
tioned, deserves a passing notice. He was a Mus¬ 
sulman of Sindian extraction, who, from the hum¬ 
ble station of shepherd, raised himself to the su¬ 
preme rule in Cutch, about the year 1788 ; and en¬ 
joyed a greater degree of fame and respect, both 
at home and abroad, than any legitimate prince 
who had ever sat on its throne. At the confused 
period when this Cutchee Cromwell appeared, the 
country was groaning under the tyranny of Rao 
Rahiden, a monster, who, having apostatized to 
the Moslem creed, determined to spread it by the 
sword throughout his dominions, and deluged Bhooj 
with blood ; it being his usual practice to parade 
the streets with a body of negroes, putting to 
death every human being he met, whom scruples 


COURT OF SINDE. 


15 


or fear prevented exclaiming, Allah Akber. He 
was at length imprisoned as a lunatic, through 
the address and bravery of Futteh Mahommed, 
who, being hailed as a deliverer, restored the pro¬ 
vince to tranquillity, by a firm and judicious exer¬ 
cise of authority; and continued to wield its re¬ 
sources for many years, during which he often dis¬ 
played views of policy, and traits of generosity 
and courage, which would have done honour to an 
European sovereign. A revolution in 1801 hav¬ 
ing thrown him from his high station, his energy 
enabled him speedily to recover the ascendency; 
but his renewed sway soon betrayed an altered 
temper, and less worthy motives; for, soured by 
the misfortunes and ingratitude he had experien¬ 
ced, he became the merciless persecutor of his pri¬ 
vate enemies, and the ruthless scourge of the un¬ 
happy people he had so long cherished. 

Futteh Mahommed, nevertheless, bears the only 
name in the history of Cutch on which the mind 
can dwell with a feeling of reverence. Living at 
a period when the country was a scene of dissen- 
tion, and exposed as a prey to any daring adven¬ 
turer, the superiority of his mind enabled him to 
seize the government; and he was well qualified 
to reduce it to order. His actions speak for them¬ 
selves. In prosperity, and during the first ten years 
of his administration, he was prudent and just, 
and the popular voice was unanimous in his praise. 
Adversity effected a complete transformation in his 


16 * 


VISIT TO THE 


character; and his subsequent actions, which his 
friends attempted to palliate on the plea of necessi¬ 
ty, evince how readily he forsook his maxims of 
moderation, and how little he regarded the repu¬ 
tation he had gained. But if we take into consi¬ 
deration the place where he passed his early life, 
and the bloody examples which were daily before 
his eyes, we cease to wonder at his excesses, and 
are only surprised at the virtue and self-denial, 
which, amidst the greatest temptation, he had so 
long maintained. He was the chief whom Colo¬ 
nel Walker endeavoured to interest in his philan¬ 
thropic but abortive scheme of abolishing infanti¬ 
cide, and who, in answer to that gentleman’s ex¬ 
postulations, retorted with a disquisition on the 
divine origin of this inhuman practice. That he 
disapproved of it, however, may be fairly inferred 
from his comparatively enlightened sentiments in 
other respects ; and that he did not put it down 
by force, must be pardoned on the same principle 
that we excuse ourselves for permitting Suttee 
cremations. He died so late as 1813, leaving his 
power to his two eldest sons ; who, however, were 
unable to retain it. 

The immediate neighbourhood of Luckput is 
a parched, deserted, and unproductive country, of 
the most uninteresting appearance ; which has evi¬ 
dently, at no remote period, been under water, as 
is clear from the abundance of decayed shells and 
other marine productions. With the exception of 


17 


COURT OF SINDE. 

one or two small gardens under the walls, there 
is no cultivation within two leagues of the town. 
A few miles distant, at the foot of the nearest 
hills to the south east, are the ruins of an ancient 
city, called Wagum Chaora Ka Ghud, which, I be¬ 
lieve, have not been mentioned by any preceding 
writer. It is supposed to have flourished about 
nine centuries ago, and must have belonged to the 
Chaora Rajpoots, who then occupied this part of 
the country. The stones of which Luckput is 
built have been taken chiefly from the remains of 
the city. 

Before passing into Sinde, it may not be amiss 
to take a brief review of the history of that coun¬ 
try, and of the revolutions which raised the pre¬ 
sent rulers to power. 

From the days of Alexander the Great to the 
birth of Mahommed, a period of nine hundred 
years, little light is thrown on the history of Sinde; 
which is known at both these epochs, and during 
the reign of the Greek monarchs of Bactria, to 
have been governed by Hindoo Rajahs. But the 
rapid progress of Islamism, together with the 
sudden rise of the empire of the Saracens, pro¬ 
duced a new era in the annals of this, as in those 
of many other nations ; and so early as the 20th 
year of the Hejira, the fertile regions watered by 
the Indus had attracted the attention of the Caliph 
Omar, who, after founding the city of Bussora on 


B 


18 


VISIT TO THE 


the Euphrates, despatched an expedition from 
Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, in order to reduce 
them under his authority ; but the attempt proved 
unsuccessful. Towards the close of the same cen¬ 
tury, however, while the enthusiastic soldiers of the 
Mahommedan faith were engaged in subduing Spain 
on the one side, and Samarcand on the other, a 
zeal to propagate the “ religion of God and his 
apostle” among the Pagan Hindoos, inflamed as 
usual by a thirst of glory and dominion, but al¬ 
loyed in this instance with the less noble motive 
of procuring female slaves for the seraglio of the 
commander of the faithful, induced Hediaz ben 
Yousuf, the lieutenant of the Oommiade Caliph 
Walid in Sejestan and Candahar, to detach one 
of his generals, Mahommed Cossim, to extend the 
power of their sovereign towards India, and Sinde 
flourished under the protection of the vicegerents 
of the prophet, successively in Syria and at Bag¬ 
dad, till 391, the date of its conquest by Sooltan 
of Ghizni.* 


* The history of Sinde may be faintly traced to a more 
remote period than that mentioned in the text; for we are 
told that, two hundred years before the time of Alexander, 
the Persian Empire had extended itself to that country, under 
the reign of Darius Hystaspes, whose admiral, Scylax, a 
Greek, descended the Indus to the sea, and imposed a tribute 
upon the nations on its banks ; to enforce the payment of 
which, some writers assert, was one of the objects of the 
Macedonian expedition. The Hindoo Prince who reigned 
in Sinde, at the time of Mahommed Cossim’s invasion, was 



COUltT OF SINDE. 19 

The revolution which conveyed the ensigns of 
royalty from the feeble hands of this conqueror’s 
descendants, relieved it for a moment from a fo¬ 
reign yoke, and encouraged the Soomras, a great 
native tribe in which the local government was 
vested, to make an effort for independence ; but 
they were soon vanquished by the victorious arms 
of Mahommed Ghori, whose successor, the enter- 
prizing Altimush, proclaimed himself the lord 
paramount of Sinde in the year 612. Now annex¬ 
ed to Delhi, the province remained a fief of that 
crown for two centuries, during which the Soom¬ 
ras became extinct, and their authority passed 
into the family of Summa, then settled upon the 
confines of Muckran, whose traditions claim 
for it a genealogy from the downfal of Babylon ; 
while Hindoo branches, derived probably from 
members of this family, who fled before the first 
Mahommedan invaders of India, are still to be 
found in the Rao of Cutch, and the Rajpoot Ja- 
rejas of that country and Kattiwar. In the con¬ 
fusion occasioned by the dreadful irruption of 
Tamerlane, this dynasty threw off its allegiance ; 
and its members continued to reign under the 
designation of Jams, sometimes as vassals, but 

Dahir, the son of Chuch, a Brahmin, who had raised himself 
to the throne by a marriage with the widow of the last Raj¬ 
poot sovereign, and whose history is fully recorded in a Per¬ 
sian work named after him, “ The Chuch Nameh/’ of which 
I brought an abstract with me from Hyderdabad. 



20 


VISIT TO THE 


often uncontrolled, through a succession of seve¬ 
ral generations, till their power was entirely anni¬ 
hilated by the elevation of the celebrated Baber 
to the throne. 

On the distribution of the Mogul realms into 
Soobahs or divisions in the time of Akber, Sinde 
was attached to Mooltan, but was occasionally 
ruled by separate viceroys, nominated by the court 
of Hindostan, till the invasion of Nadir Shah, 
when it was ceded to Persia by virtue of the treaty 
concluded between that monarch and the emperor 
Mahommed the Second; who, to use the polished 
terms of the instrument itself, “ in consideration of 
an affection stronger than father ever showed to son, 
or brother to brother,” dismembered to his conque¬ 
ror, as a peace-offering, all the territories border¬ 
ing on the Indus which were then deemed worthy 
of his acceptance. This arrangement concluded, 
Nadir Shah visited Tatta; but his assassination, 
which occurred soon after at Meshed,in Khorassan, 
having left a field open for the ambitious schemes 
of his general, Ahmed Khan Seedozy, that aspir¬ 
ing chief declared himself king of Cabul, and laid 
the foundation of the Douranee empire, to which 
Sinde after a time submitted, and has ever since 
been considered subordinate. 

The house of Calora claimed a lineage from the 
princely blood of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet; 
but its greatness in Sinde is traced to Adam Shah, 
a native of Belochistan, who gained a high influ- 


COURT OF S1NDE. 


21 


ence from the reputed sanctity of his character, 
and as the chosen disciple and delegate of a fa¬ 
mous Mahommedan preacher, in the middle of the 
fifteenth century * of our era, and whose descen¬ 
dants, inheriting the holiness of their ancestor, 
succeeded to his spiritual power, and were revered 
as saints, till about 1705, when they were ho¬ 
noured with a title and a jaghire, by the great Au- 
rungzebe. With temporal rank thus added to 
religious veneration, the grandeur of the family 
rapidly increased ; and in a few years their glory 
reached its zenith by the issue of a firmaun under 
the emperor’s signet, installing their representa¬ 
tive in the viceregal government of Tatta. 

The patent for this investiture was granted 
about 1735, in the person of Meean Noor Mahom- 
med, f who may be styled the flower of the race, 

* It is rather a singular coincidence, that, at this very period, 
(the middle of the fifteenth century,) should have appeared 
the two religious leaders, who have exerted so much political 
influence on the countries bordering on the Indus; namely, 

t 

Adam Shah, the head of the Caloras, and Nanna, the founder 
of the Sikhs now so formidable. 

f “ In the person of Meer Noor Mahommed, the autho¬ 
rity which was at first an usurpation of itinerants, became le- 
gitimated, and the descendants of a mendicant elevated to the 
government of Sinde. The stock, however, was held in holy 
veneration; religious prejudice, therefore, combined with 
worldly power to awe the public mind, and many features of 
the country at the present day, mark the impression of the 
double influence.” —Crow. 



22 


VISIT TO THE 


and wlio, on transferring his fealty to Persia, agree* 
ably to the treaty of Delhi, contrived, by address 
and solicitation, to obtain from Nadir Shah a con¬ 
firmation of its privileges, which he enjoyed dur¬ 
ing his lifetime, and bequeathed to his posterity 
at his death. When this event took place, Ahmed 
Shah had seated himself firmly on the Affghaun 
throne, and in order to regulate the payment of 
his tribute from Sinde, was advancing into Sewis- 
tan. One of the first to offer him homage was 
Mourad Yab Khan, the eldest son of Meean Noor 
Mahommed, who had been raised to the musnud 
by the suffrages of the grandees, and whose dig¬ 
nity the king was at first pleased to ratify; but, 
having proved himself unworthy of the trust, he 
was deposed, and his honours devolved on one of 
his younger brothers, Meean Gholam Shah, who, 
after a struggle for the supremacy, at length boldly 
seized the reins of government, and commenced 
an active administration, though not unchequered 
by reverses, of fifteen years. 

Civil dissension being at an end, he led in per¬ 
son two expeditions against the “infidels of Cutch,” 
and defeated the Rao’s troops at the great battle 
of Jarrah, memorable for the barbarity of the 
Rajpoots, who, seeing victory hopeless, turned 
their swords against their own women and chil¬ 
dren, to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
invaders, and where, as the historians of the coun¬ 
try allege, a hundred thousand corpses strewed the 


COURT OF S1NDE. 


23 


field. Such bloodshed might have satisfied the 
triumph, and glutted the revenge of the most in¬ 
veterate enemy; but it was not sufficient for 
Gholam Shah, who, disappointed in the hope of 
adding a province to his dominions, and enraged 
at the obstinate valour of a nation fighting for in¬ 
dependence, resolved, by a refinement in persecu¬ 
tion known only to Asiatics, to inflict upon it a 
novel and most signal act of vengeance, the disas¬ 
trous effects of which should remain as a monu¬ 
ment of his wrath to future ages. With this view 
he commanded an embankment to be thrown across 
the eastern branch of the Indus within his own 
territories, and dug canals for the purpose of with¬ 
drawing the waters of that river entirely from 
Cutch; and, by this master stroke of implacable 
resentment, he had the stern gratification of depriv¬ 
ing his adversary of nearly half his revenue, blast¬ 
ing the hopes and expectations of a thousand fa¬ 
milies, and transforming a valuable district of rice 
country into a gloomy and unproductive waste. 
The injury has indeed proved irreparable ; for, 
from the influx of the tide, the tract alluded to 
has become a dreary salt marsh, and the princi¬ 
pality may be said to have declined ever since. 

A splendid mausoleum, inclosing a tomb of 
white marble, inscribed with Arabic apothegms 
of mercy and humility, perpetuates the memory, 
and commemorates the achievements, of this de¬ 
stroyer, near the capital of Sinde, where his cha- 


24 


VISIT TO THE 


racter is esteemed as that of a brave and victori¬ 
ous prince. He closed his career, in 1771, after a 
few hours’ illness; his sudden death being attri¬ 
buted, by the pious Moslems, to a curse uttered 
against him by a fuqueer, whose hut he had sa¬ 
crilegiously directed to be cleared away, during 
the erection of the fortress of Hyderabad, which 
he had the merit of founding. 

The demise of Gholam Shah left the musnud 

/ 

vacant for his eldest son, Meean Surufraz Khan ; 
who, far inferior in talents to his sire, was equally 
unprincipled in conduct, and to whose capricious 
tyranny is ascribed the ruin of his line. Among 
the most distinguished personages at his court, was 
Meer Byram Khan, the chief of a Beloche tribe, 
named Talpoor, whose members had, for many 
generations, held the highest offices of the state, 
and whom, from an impulse of jealousy and suspi¬ 
cion, for which history can show no foundation, 
he ordered to be put to death, together with his 
son Sobdar Khan; an act of wanton cruelty and 
injustice, which led eventually to his own de¬ 
thronement, after a short reign of five years. 

Surufraz was succeeded by his brother Mahom- 
med Khan, and his cousin Sadilc Ali Khan, nei¬ 
ther of whom retained the government longer 
than a twelvemonth, and who, together with him¬ 
self, expiated their crimes or imbecility, by a life 
of imprisonment and a violent end, agreeably to 
the mode of disposing of unfortunate princes which 


COURT OF SINDE. 


25 


prevails in eastern palaces. The ensigns of state 
were then assumed by Gholam Nubbee, a brother 
ot Gholam Shah; who, reckless of consequences, 
and untaught by the fate of his three nephews, 
immediately entered into an intrigue to assassinate 
Bejur Khan, the suriving chief of the Talpoors, 
and son of Byram, who had been absent on a pil¬ 
grimage to Mecca at the period of his father’s mur¬ 
der. But his treacherous attempts proved utterly 
unsuccessful, and ended in his own overthrow. He 
was slain in battle by the adherents of his rival, 
when the whole power of Sinde fell into the hands 
of Bejur Khan, who, with a magnanimity scarcely 
to be expected, was the first to take the oath of 
allegiance to Abdul Nubbee, the brother of his fallen 
enemy. • 

But neither generosity nor experience could 
influence the conduct of the ill-fated race of Ca- 
lora. No sooner had Abdul Nubbee obtained his 
seat on the musnud, through the grace of a man 
who had suffered the bitterest persecution from 
his family, than, pursuing the wicked policy of 
his predecessors, he began also to seek the de¬ 
struction of Bejur Khan, which he at length 
effected through the friendship of a Hindoo con¬ 
federate. * On this event no bounds could restrain 

* {i He essayed numerous modes in vain, but at last ef¬ 
fected his purpose by the co-operation of his friend Maharaj 
By sing, Rajah of Joudpoor. From him two assassins were 
sent as messengers on business to Meer Bejur Khan, who, 



26 


VISIT TO THE 


the fury of the Talpoors, who flew to arms in 
great numbers ; and a series of bloody commotions 
followed, which brought about a total involution in 
the government of Sinde. Abdul Nubbee fled into 
the mountains of Belochistan; and, after various 
attempts to recover his power, (in one of which, 
through the assistance of the king of Cabul, he 
was partially successful, and added to his crimes 
the murder of Abdullah Khan, the son of Meer Be- 
jur,) he passed the remainder of his life, as an exile, 
in poverty and contempt. * * Futteh Ali Khan, 
the son of Sobdar, and grandson of Byram, whose 
bravery and perseverance, excited by revenge, had 
been chiefly instrumental in effecting the change, 
was, by the general voice, called to the direction of 
affairs, and was shortly afterwards confirmed as 
ruler of the country by the patent of the king, 


availing themselves of the pretence of secret information to 
gain a nearer approach, plunged their daggers into his breast, 
and he instantly expired.” —Crow. The Ameers made this 
murder a plea for requiring the gentlemen of Mr Smith's 
embassy in 1809 to appear at their durbar unarmed; an in¬ 
sulting proposal, which, it is scarcely necessary to say, was 
at once rejected. 

* “ Timour Shah, after some unavailing attempts to restore 
him, (Abdool Nubbee) conferred on him the government of 
Leia as an indemnity for Sinde, and formally invested the 
chief of the Talpoories with the government of that province. 
Abdool Nubbee repaid the Shah’s bounty by rebelling in his 
new province, was defeated by the royal troops, and ended 
his days in poverty at Dera Haujee Khan in Upper Sinde.”— 
Elphinstone’s Cabiil . 



COURT OF SINDE. 


27 


Timour Shall. On his own elevation, this prince 
liberally resolved to admit to a participation in 
his high destiny, his three younger brothers, 
Ghoolam Ali, Kurm Ali, and Mourad Ali; and 
the four agreed to reign together under the de- 
nomination of the Ameers, or Lords of Sinde. 
While they all lived, the strong and unvarying 
attachment they evinced for each other, gained 
them the honourable appellation of the Char 
Yar , or “ the four friends and although Meer 
Futteh Ali died in 1801, and Ghoolam Ali in 1811, 
this government, a phenomenon in history, has 
continued, with little alteration, from its first com¬ 
mencement to the present moment. There are 
still some remnants of the exiled house living 
under the protection of Runjeet Sing, the cele¬ 
brated Sikh chieftain, and the king of Joudpoor. 

The intercourse of the British with Sinde has 
been rare, and for the most part unsatisfactory. 
The great advantages of Tatta as an emporium 
for the trade of central Asia, early invited English 
speculators to the Indus ; but the constant opposi¬ 
tion of the Portuguese prevented their effecting a 
permanent settlement, and if we may judge from 
the indignities offered to the ambassadors of James 
the First to the King of Persia, as they passed 
through in 1614, our countrymen must, at that 
time, have been in bad repute. About 1758, Gho- 
lam Shah encouraged the Bombay Government to 
establish a factory at Tatta, which was withdraw!), 


28 


VISIT TO THE 


however, some years after ; though so late even 
as the beginning of this century, Mr Crow appears 
to have been our commercial resident at that city. 
The ambitious schemes of the French made it 
necessary in 1808-9 to send missions to the chief 
powers in the north of India, in order to counteract 
their intrigues ; and while Mr Elpliinstone and Sir 
John Malcolm were deputed to the courts of Cabul 
and Persia, an envoy also proceeded to Hyderabad, 
who, although indifferently received, gained the 
object of the governor-general. Before this em¬ 
bassy, the Ameers had seen no British subjects, 
except as petitioners for mercantile benefits; which 
gave rise to a reproach they have been often 
known to apply to us, unwittingly in the same 
terms as a much greater personage, that we are a 
nation of shopkeepers. Of this erroneous impres¬ 
sion, we may presume that they are by this time 
pretty nearly cured. Our transactions with their 
Highnesses subsequently to our invasion of Cutch 
in 1816, are detailed in the sketch of the history 
of that country subjoined to the present narrative. 

I waited with the greatest impatience till the 
morning of the 3d November, when the expected 
letter from the Ameers arrived. It was couched 
in the most friendly terms; begging me to come 
with all convenient speed to Hyderabad, and in¬ 
forming me that two noblemen, high in their 
favour, had been despatched to meet me, and con- 


COURT OF SINDE. 29 

duct me to their court. I prepared immediately 
to obey the welcome summons, and made arrange¬ 
ments for taking the straight route by Pallia and 
Gharee; but here again the vakeel interfered, stating 
that he had been directed to conduct me by the 
road of Bliey, or Mugrbhey, a large town in a 
westerly direction, situated in the province of 
Jattee. It certainly excited my surprise, that if 
the Ameers required my presence for the cure of 
a dangerous disorder, they should prescribe a cir¬ 
cuitous route, by which the journey would be pro¬ 
tracted so many days longer. The vakeel, how¬ 
ever, could not give any satisfactory explanation, 
and the killedar of Luckput strongly urged me not 
to venture ; but I found afterwards that these sus¬ 
picions were most unjust, and that my detention, 
both there and on the road, was merely to enable 
the Sinde authorities to receive me with greater 
civility and distinction. 

All things being prepared, I embarked in the 
afternoon with a fair wind, and reached Kotree, 
the landing-place, on the opposite side, about five 
o’clock. The distance in a direct line is not more 
than four miles, but, from the windings of the 
stream, our voyage must have exceeded eight. 
One of the most extraordinary effects of the great 
earthquake in 1819 was produced upon this chan¬ 
nel, * which, before that dreadful convulsion, was 


* The following particulars regarding this river are re¬ 
lated by my brother in his memoir of the eastern mouth of 



30 


VISIT TO THE 


fordable, at low water, but which is now at all 

times impracticable for foot-passengers. From 

» 

the Indus, and will serve to convey an idea of the monstrous 
policy pursued by the Galoras for the ruin of their enemy, the 
Rao of Cutch, whose country has never yet recovered from 
the effects of their vengeance. 

“ The disadvantages which Cutch labours under are not 
altogether natural, but have originated from jealousy of a 
neighbouring power, which has been evinced in a most cruel 
degree, by depriving it of the fresh water of the Indus, and 
thereby destroying a large tract of irrigated land, and con¬ 
verting a productive rich country into a sandy desert. 

“ The Raos of Cutch had at no distant period three Tan- 
nas in the dominions of Sinde, viz. Ballyaree, Raoma ka 
Bazar, and Budeena, their right to which was undisputed. 
The year 1762 gave, however, a new era to both nations, and 
it was the commencement of a calamitous one for Cutch. 
Ghoolam Shah Kalora, after bringing an army of eighty thou¬ 
sand men into Cutch, and meeting with a warm reception at 
a hill above the small village of Jharra, returned full of ven¬ 
geance to Sinde, and threw a bund across the Phurraun river 
at Mora, which, although it did not entirely prevent the 
waters of the Indus passing by Luckput, so impeded the pro¬ 
gress of the main stream that all agriculture depending on 
irrigation from it ceased. 

“ Previous to the battle of Jharra in 1762, the eastern 
branch of the Indus or Phurraun emptied itself into the sea 
by passing Luckput and Cotasir, and the country on its banks 
participated in the advantages which this river bestows 
throughout its course. Its annual inundations watered the 
soil, and afforded the natives of Cutch a plentiful supply of 
rice, the whole country between Sinde and Lucknut then 

• a. 

known by the name of ‘ Sayra’ being cultivated ; and so fer¬ 
tile was it, that it yielded an annual revenue to the govern- 





31 


COURT OF SINDE. 

the low and level nature of the Sindian coast, it is 
scarcely discernible from Luckput; but the shores 
of Cutch are distinctly seen, and present a bold 
striking appearance from the opposite side. 

Kotree is merely the name given to the landing 
place in Sinde. There is neither house, bunder, nor 
inhabitants, nay, not even the usual party of soldiers 
for the collection of the revenue; a precaution 
seldom neglected by either the Cutch or Sindian 
government, and the omission of which, in this 
instance, is only to be attributed to the want of 
fresh water, which is not procurable for the use 
of man within many miles of the shore. We saw 
about a hundred camels on the beach, which had 
come laden with ghee from Sinde, together with 
several merchants who were preparing to embark 
for Cutch. Some delay occurred in landing the 
baggage ; but by seven o’clock we marched, with 
a beautiful moonlight, for Lah, in a direction 
nearly north-westerly. We continued our jour¬ 
ney till eleven o’clock, by which time we reached 

9 

our destination. Not a tree, house, nor human 
being, except our own people, was to be seen on the 

ment of from seven to eight lacs of corries, upwards of two 
lacs of rupees. The bunds thrown across deprived it of this . 
advantage, and the channel, which had been before deep and 
navigable, became now quite shallow and filled with mud, 
there being no running stream to carry it off .”—Memoir of a 
Map of the Eastern Branch of the Indus , by Lieutenant 
A. Burnes, assistant quarter-master-general of the Bombay 


army. 



32 


VISIT TO THE 


road, which extended for about eighteen miles over 
a level tract of country, a continuation of the 
great Northern Runn, or, in other words, a per¬ 
fect desert. I found the road firm and hard, though 
I was informed that it would be impassable, or 
nearly so, in the rainy season. 

At Lah there are two or three trees in the imme¬ 
diate neighbourhood ; but the same appearance of 
Runn extends all around, interspersed with scatter¬ 
ed and stunted shrubs. The country, as far as the 
eye can reach, is a dead unproductive flat, nor is 
there a hill or village visible in any direction. A 
few Sindian soldiers, not above eight or ten, 
whose only place of residence is an open wooden 
shed, and whose chief food is camel’s milk, are 
stationed at Lah to collect a tax on the merchan¬ 
dize which passes; and they are its onlyinhabitants. 
But even from these few specimens I could at once 
distinguish a different people, different manners, 
and different language from those of Cutch. They 
were men of large size, dressed in frocks resem¬ 
bling those of English labourers, of a coarse dark 
blue cotton, trowsers of the same material, and 
the national cap, which is of a cylindrical form, 
about eight inches in height, and commonly made 
of coloured cloth. Like their countrymen in ge¬ 
neral, they wore long beards and moustachios, and 
were armed with swords, daggers, matchlocks, 
and shields. I shall probably have occasion after¬ 
wards to allude to the military retainers of the 


4 


COURT OF SINCE. 


m 


Ameers ; in the meantime, I cannot refer to a 
more exact delineation of the appearance, dress, 
and accoutrements of the Sindian soldier, than that 
which is given in the frontispiece to Pottinger’s 
Travels in Belochistan. Lah has been chosen as 
a post, I presume, from its being the first place 
on the road from Cutch where water is drinkable; 
though this is saying too much for the muddy 
brackish fluid which was presented to us : none 
of the Sipahis with me could swallow it, and they 
were obliged to. depend on the small supply they 

had brought with them from Luckput. I found the 

\ 

place extremely disagreeable; for, besides there 
being no water to drink, the air was impregnated 
with saline exhalations and the disgusting effluvia 
of camel’s dung. 

It would be uninteresting, as well as unneces¬ 
sary, to follow particularly the course of my 
journey through the barren and desolate tract I 
traversed during the two following days. On 
the morning of the 4th I halted at Vere, twelve 
miles, and proceeded about thirteen miles further 
to Himiut on the forenoon of the 5th. Neither 
of these places merits a detailed description ; they 
are names merely given to stations in the desert, 
where a little brackish water is to be obtained 
from marshes in the neighbourhood. At Himiut 
I learned that the officers who had been despatch¬ 
ed from the court to receive me, had taken the 
route by Ruree, and instead of pursuing my march 

c 


V 


34 


VISIT TO THE 


to Mugrbhey, I accordingly turned towards that 
town and reached it on the night of the 5th, a dis¬ 
tance from my last stage of about twenty miles. 
The road from Lah to Ruree extended in a direc¬ 
tion nearly north, through a continuation of the 
same sort of country as I have already described, 
a desert Runn, without an elevation to vary the 
scene. As I approached nearer Ruree, I saw se¬ 
veral extensive marshes of fresh water which are 
supplied, I presume, from the Sunkra* and Meeta 
Meera branches of the Indus, as laid down in our 
maps, but which are unknown to the natives by 
these names. 

It required little discernment to discover that 
the road from Kotree to Ruree was quite unsuited 


* The Sunkra river is mentioned in the treaty of partition 
between Nadir Shah and the Emperor Mahommed, as the 
common boundary between Hindoostan and the Persian pro¬ 
vinces. Hence Major Rennell infers that the eastern branch 
of the Indus is named Sunkra ; which, however, is certainly 
not the case for many miles from its mouth. It is called at 
Luckput, the Koree, and farther up, the Phurraun. The 
meaning of the word Sunkra is “ narrow and although such a 
supposition is highly improbable, the contracting parties per¬ 
haps only meant by “ Nulla Sunkra” a narrow river, which 
was known to both. It is worthy of remark, however, that 
the natives of Sinde have no other name, at Hyderabad, for 
the Indus than that of the “ Derya,” or sea. They dis¬ 
tinguish it from the ocean by terming it the " Derya Sliee- 
reen” or “ Meeta Derya,” which means the fresh water sea, 
in contradistinction to “ Derya Shor ” or salt water sea. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


35 


for military purposes. I question if it be at all 
passable in the rains; and although, during the 
dry season, artillery could, no doubt, be conveyed 
by this entrance into Sinde, still the total want of 
supplies, and, I may almost say, of fresh water, for 
a distance of above forty-nine miles, would render 
it extremely inconvenient for the passage of an 
invading army. In these inhospitable tracts, and 
all along the Delta of the Indus, the camels of 
Sinde, so famed throughout the whole of Asia, are 
reared, and they are the only species of conveyance 
used in the country, carts being unknown. The 
traffic by land, between the lower provinces and 
Candahar, is carried on by means of these ani¬ 
mals, which are supposed to acquire a greater 
hardihood, from being brought up in salt marshes, 
where they are limited, from the first, in their al¬ 
lowance of fresh water. 

The villages of Sinde, on this side the Indus, 
are much inferior in appearance to those of Cutch, 
and are entirely destitute of the stone buildings 
and tiled roofs, which give an air of neatness and 
comfort to those of the latter country. They are 
for the most part collections of low huts, compos¬ 
ed entirely of clay and thatch, while even the mos¬ 
ques, with which they abound, are generally of 
the same frail materials, and only distinguishable, 
indeed, by their greater elevation, and a feeble at¬ 
tempt at ornament. Many of the inhabitants 
of the province live in grass hovels in the fields 


36 


VISIT TO THE 


which they cultivate.* Most of the villages have 
no name except that of their actual owner; and 
it is not unusual for the whole population of a 
place to remove their dwellings to another station, 
as inclination or necessity prompts them, and when 
either food or forage fails. 

The town of Ruree is superior to most of its 
kind, and was till lately a place of considerable 
opulence. Being, however, so far removed from 
the freshes of the Indus, and depending chiefly on 
the periodical rains, it has, during the last few 
years, suffered very severely from want of water, 
like the neighbouring country of Cutch. The in¬ 
habitants are now reduced to below five hundred ; 
but at the time I visited them, grain was so plen¬ 
tiful that our horses were fed with rice, cut unripe, 
instead of grass. Towards the west I was told 
that there was cultivation in abundance, but that 
the opposite direction was a dreary waste. The 
only object of interest at this place is a large 
mosque, sacred to the memory of Peer Noor Shah, 
which is visible at a great distance, and which 
was built a hundred and fifty years ago, of stones 
brought from the neighbourhood of Tatta. Near 
the town is a large tank of excellent water. 

Immediately on my arrival at Ruree, I was 

* The moveable houses of the people of Sinde are men¬ 
tioned by Arrian, as one of the peculiarities of the country in 
the days of Alexander. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


37 


visited by the Khans whom the Ameers had sent 
to meet me, and who were introduced as Hyder 
Khan Lagharee, the governor of the province of 
Jattee, and nephew of the principal vizier, and 
Baliadoor Khan, both distinguished officers of 
the Sinde government. They received me with 
great courtesy, each embracing me in a ceremoni¬ 
ous manner, and after a profusion of civilities on 
their part, entered into a long complimentary 

message from the Ameers, who, they assured me, 

• • 

were highly gratified by my visit. They brought 
orders from Hyderabad that neither I nor my re¬ 
tinue should be permitted to pay for any supplies 
on the route ; and although I was of course un- 
wilJ ing to accept, and remonstrated strongly against, 
such an expensive mark of kindness to above a 
hundred persons, I was forced to comply, in order 
to avoid giving offence. Fifty camels were in at¬ 
tendance, by command of the Ameers, who had 
given positive directions that none of my followers 
should be allowed to walk. The Khans even con¬ 
sidered seriously how my palanquin bearers could 
be mounted ; and although this was impracticable, 
I was obliged to consent that the Sipahis of the 
guard, and all others, should proceed on camels. 
The supplies were of an expensive description ; 
nothing in fact seemed to be spared that could 
add to my comfort, or that of my attendants ; and 
sugar, sweetmeats and opium, were daily issued 
in great profusion. 


VISIT TO THE 


38 

Having thus given a sketch of my route as far 
as Ruree, it appears unnecessary to dwell upon 
uninteresting details. From Ruree I inarched to 
Shahkapoor, ten miles; to Butora, boating it across 
a deep but narrow river which appeared to be 
almost stagnant, three miles; to Amra, a small 
village, three miles ; Meerpoor, a considerable 
town, four miles ; Thoora, four miles; Laiqpoor, 
six miles; Damaka-got, five miles; Bunna, five 
miles; Cabulpoor, eight miles; Meeanee, four 
miles ; Triccul, five miles ; Soomerjee Wusee, 
eight miles; Jumrajee Wussee, four miles ; Hy¬ 
derabad, four miles. 

All these places bear the general features I 
have already described. In addition to them, I 
passed through clusters of temporary villages, 
which do not require any observation, further than 
that they gave an appearance of extreme popu- 
lousnesss to the country. At Laiqpoor and Tric¬ 
cul, I took up my abode in wicker bungalows, in 
the middle of gardens, beautifully shaded, and deck¬ 
ed with flowers : these were the hunting lodges of 
the Ameers. The country continues level till with¬ 
in a few miles of Hyderabad, when it begins to as¬ 
sume a more hilly appearance. From Ruree to 
Toorta the extensive cultivation and richness of the 
soil were every where remarkable. I had to cross 
a number of canals, dug for the purposes of ag¬ 
riculture, from the branches of the Indus; and 
over many of these, small brick bridges had been 


COURT OF SINDE. 


39 


thrown, on which Motjis, or draw-wells were 
constantly at play, for irrigating the fields. The 
transition from the parched deserts of Cutch to 
the exuberance of vegetable life which was now 
before me, could not fail to produce the most 
pleasurable feelings, and a contrast in my mind 
highly favourable to Sinde. * 

It was on the evening of the 8th, that I arrived 
at Bunna, and saw for the first time the river 
Indus. My impatience to view this famous clas¬ 
sic stream had been so excited, that I left all my 
baggage behind, and riding nearly forty miles 
during the day, reached its bank at sunset quite 
exhausted and fatigued. The feeling with which 
my curiosity was at length gratified, I will not 
attempt to describe ; but I question whether my 
Hindoo attendants, who began to mutter their 

* “ In every step of his progress, objects no less striking 
than new, presented themselves to Alexander. The magni¬ 
tude of the Indus, even after he had seen the Euphrates and 
the Tigris, must have filled him with surprise. No country 
he had hitherto visited, was so populous and well cultivated, 
or abounded in so many valuable productions of nature and 
of art, as that part of India through which he had led his 
army.” —Robertson’s Indio.—“ The province of Sindy, in 
many particulars of soil and climate, and in the general ap¬ 
pearance of its surface, resembles Egypt; the lower part of 
it being composed of rich vegetable mould, and extended into 
a wide delta, the river Indus, equal at least to the Nile, win¬ 
ding through the midst of this level valley, and annually over¬ 
flowing it.”— Rennell’s Memoir. 

CJ 



40 


VISIT TO THE 


prayers to the river as an object of adoration, and 
who considered immersion in its sacred watery a 
nearer step to everlasting bliss, felt a stronger, or 

more overpowering emotion than I did, in con- 

# 

templating the scene of Alexander’s glories. Never 
before did the worship of water or water gods 
appear to me so excusable, as in observing the 
blessings every where diffused by this mighty 
and beneficent stream. 

It is at Bunna that the Pinyaree branch leaves 
the parent stream. The channel of the latter is here 
above a mile wide, with a large dry sand bank in 
the middle. My march from Laiqpoor to Bunna, 
and from thence to within a short distance of 
Hyderabad, was through a thick hunting forest 
belonging to the Ameers, which concealed every 
other part of the country from my observation. 
The road extended for many miles along the verge 
of the Indus, which, at a short distance above Bun¬ 
na, is a large beautiful river nearly a mile broad, 
studded with boats, filling its channel from bank 
to bank, and moving majestically forward, at the 
rate of about three miles an hour. 

Nothing could exceed the attention I experi¬ 
enced on the route from my Mihmandars, who 
themselves frequently sat up to watch me during 
the night. A large cotton mattress, covered with 
crimson silk, was always carried near me in case 
I should feel disposed to alight; flaggons of cool¬ 
ed sherbet, and other luxuries were also liberally 


COURT OF SINDE. 


41 


supplied. The Ameers had sent several hawks, 
which afforded an attractive sport on the road, 
and supplied my table with every species of winged 
game, which indeed is more abundant in Sinde, 
than in any country I have ever visited. My great 
object being to reach Hyderabad without de¬ 
lay, our rate of travelling was as rapid as possible. 
There must have been at least a thousand persons 
in our party, most of whom were mounted on ca¬ 
mels. The Khans themselves adopted this mode 
of travelling, which is the most usual and com¬ 
fortable in Sinde, and moved so expeditiously, as 
generally to keep pace with my horse. Their 
saddle was a silken cushion, which entirely relieves 
the rider from the effect of the uneasy gait of the 
camels. The road by which we travelled had 
never before, I believe, been passed by any Euro¬ 
pean. The eager curiosity evinced by the inha¬ 
bitants to see me was beyond all bounds ; my tent 
was surrounded constantly by a flock of gazers ; 
and crowds came from all parts of the country to 
look at the Feringee or European. Some even 
affected sickness to gain admittance to my pre¬ 
sence ; and on my discovering the pretence, they 
readily acknowledged that their only wish had 
been to see me, from a belief that it might improve 
their fortunes. 

As I approached nearer Hyderabad, (within 
thirty miles,) I was met by Mahommed Khan 
Tora, a nobleman related to the family of the 


42 


VISIT TO THE 


Ameers; who, together with another officer of 
rank, named Moussa Cahitan, had been sept to 
compliment me, and who brought with them a 
number of attendants. From these persons, I 
learned that unusual preparations were making 
for my reception at Court; “ for” said they, 
“ other Europeans have come into Sinde on their 
own affairs, but you are here by the invitation of 
the Ameers, and will be made welcome in a dif¬ 
ferent manner from them.” 

At the nearest stage to the capital, I was re¬ 
ceived by the Nuwaub Wullee Mahommed Khan 
Lagharee, the prime minister of Sinde, whom, 
as a mark of great respect, the Ameers had sent 
to congratulate me on my arrival. He was ac¬ 
companied by a splendid retinue, composed of 
nearly all the men of consequence at court, and 
was carried by eight bearers in a meeanah or ele¬ 
vated chair, made of crimson velvet, with rich 
fringe and golden ornaments, from which, the 
moment he saw me, he alighted and cordially em¬ 
braced me. He is a venerable looking man, of 
great age and respectability, with the address of 
a courtier, combined with much natural dignity 
and kindness. I was placed opposite him in his 
litter; and in this manner we continued our jour¬ 
ney for a considerable distance. 

On the morning of the 10th of November, I en¬ 
tered Hyderabad; and no language of mine can 
do justice to the busy and varied scene which was 

3 


COURT OF S1NDE. 


43 


then before me. Upwards of ten or twelve thou¬ 
sand persons must have been assembled, all of 
whom manifested an intense curiosity to see me; 
the women even, very unlike the gentle Hindoo 
ladies, pressed themselves close to the chair, and 
such was the concourse that it was almost impos¬ 
sible to proceed, although the Sindian soldiery 
spared neither sword nor matchlock in endeavour¬ 
ing to clear the way. Within a mile of the 

city, I was mounted on a large black horse, hand- 

• - 

somely caparisoned, which had been brought out 
by Wullee Mahommed Khan, and led slowly for¬ 
wards ; but the crowd being found quite imper¬ 
vious, my conductors recommended me to enter 
my own close palanquin, or box, as they termed 
it, to be out of sight, and escape the pressing of 
the multitude. 

In this manner, after much labour, in one of the 
hottest days I had ever experienced, we at length 
reached the gate of the fortress of Hyderabad, 
which is appropriated solely to the residence of 
the Ameers and their families, and where I learn¬ 
ed, for the first time, that I was immediately 
to be introduced to the lords of Sinde. The silence 
which reigned within the fort formed a strong 
contrast to the noise and tumult without. After 
passing through some narrow streets, which were 
inhabited only by the immediate retainers of the 
court, I found myself, unexpectedly, among a 
crowd of well-dressed Sindians, in a large open 


44 


VISIT TO THE 


area, the walls of which, on either side, were fanci¬ 
fully decorated with paintings, and the ground 
covered with variegated carpets. At one end ap¬ 
peared three large arched doors with curtains 
of green baize, towards one of which I was led 
by the vizier and another officer; and before I 
could collect myself from the suddenness of the 
transition, my boots were taken off, and I stood 
in presence of the Ameers. 

The coup ctceil was splendid. I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the whole reigning family at a 
glance, and I have certainly never witnessed any 
spectacle which was more gratifying, or approach¬ 
ed nearer to the fancies we indulge in childhood, 
of eastern grandeur. The group formed a semi¬ 
circle of elegantly attired figures, at the end of a 
lofty hall spread with Persian carpeting. In the 
centre were seated the two principal Ameers on 
their musnud, a slightly elevated cushion of French 
white satin, beautifully worked with flowers of 
silk and gold, the corners of which were secured 
by four massive and highly-chased golden orna¬ 
ments, resembling pine-apples, and, together with 
a large velvet pillow behind, covered with rich 
embroidery, presenting a very grand appearance. 
On each side, their Highnesses were supported by 
the members of their family, consisting of their 
nephews, Meer Sobdar and Mahommed, and the 
sons of Mourad Ali, Meers Noor Mahommed, and 
Nusseer Khan. Farther off sat their more dis- 


4 


COURT OF SINDE. 


45 


tant relations, among whom were Meer Malimood, 
tlieir uncle, and his sons Ahmed Khan, and Juhan 
Khan. Behind stood a crowd of well-dressed at¬ 
tendants, sword and shield bearers to the different 
princes. 

To an European, and one accustomed to form 
his notions of native ceremony by a much hum¬ 
bler standard, it was particularly gratifying to 
observe the taste displayed in dress, and the at¬ 
tention to cleanliness, in the scene before me. 
There was no gaudy show of tinsel or scarlet; 
none of that mixture of gorgeousness and dirt to 
be seen at the courts of most Hindoo princes, but, 
on the contrary, a degree of simple and becoming 
elegance, far surpassing any thing of the kind it 
had ever been my fortune to behold. The Ameers 
and their attendants were habited nearly alike, in 
angricas or tunics of fine white muslin, neatly 
prepared and plaited so as to resemble dimity, 
with cummerbunds or sashes of silk and gold, 
wide Turkish trowsers of silk, tied at the ankle, 
chiefly dark blue, and the Sindian caps I have al¬ 
ready described, made of gold brocade, or embroi¬ 
dered velvet. A pair of cashmere shawls of great 
beauty, generally white, thrown negligently over 
the arm, and a Persian dagger at the girdle, richly 
ornamented with diamonds, or precious stones, 
completed the dress and decoration of each of the 
princes. 

Viewing the family generally, I could not but 


46 


VISIT TO THE 


admire their manners and deportment, and ac¬ 
knowledge, that, in appearance at least, they seem¬ 
ed worthy of the elevation they had gained. 
The younger princes, indeed, had an air of dig¬ 
nity and good breeding seldom to be met with, 
either in the European or native character. The 
principal Ameers were the least respectable of 
the party in point of looks ; probably from having 
had less advantages, and more exposure to hard¬ 
ships in early life. * They are in reality older, 

* Mr Crow’s account of the four brothers is subjoined ; 
but, as he wrote at the end of last century, it must be borne 
in mind that the description applies chiefly to Futteh and 
Gholam Ali, the present chief Ameers being then very young. 

The infancy of the four princes was passed in great obscu¬ 
rity, and even poverty, under the latter part of the reign of 
the Caloras, who were not, as may be supposed from the dis- 
sentions, friendly to the tribe. The present rulers of Sinde 
have been seen, it is said, tending cattle in its jungles, and 
cooking their own meals. Certain it is, that their under¬ 
standings, dispositions, and manners, betray great barbarity 
of education, and that since their advancement to an affluent 
sphere, they have derived little cultivation from literature or 
society. Their ideas extend no farther beyond the moun¬ 
tains and desert which bound their country, than to events 
at Candahar, and the highest reach of their wisdom and po¬ 
licy is watching the motions of the king, and bribing his 
officers to gain delay or remission in their payment of the 
tribute; their solicitude at home is to guard their personal 
safety, and to enrich themselves individually, and all the rest 
of their occupation consists in self-gratification, without a 
single glance at the condition of the people or the real interest 
of the country. 




COURT OF SINDE. 


47 


but did not appear above the age of fifty, from 
the very careful manner in which their beards 
and hair are stained. With one exception, there 
is little family likeness between them and the 
younger chiefs, who have inherited from their 
mothers fair complexions, jet black hair, with long 
eyelashes and eyebrows. Meer Nusseer Khan 
struck me at once as a particularly handsome 
man. 

The general style of the Sinde court could not 
fail to excite my admiration, as much as the ap¬ 
pearance of the Ameers. All the officers in atten¬ 
dance, judging from their dress and manners, 

“ The Persian language is cultivated at the Durbar, and 
taught at the public schools, and Meer Futteh Ali Khan, with 
characteristic inflation and ignorance, conceiving himself the 
Rustom of the age, and the exploits of the Talpoories worthy 
transmission to posterity, has employed a poet, a Sindian of 
more presumption than learning, to record them in verse like 
Ferdozi, and called the book in rival distinction to his immor¬ 
tal work the Shah Nameli, the Futteh Nameh. With the 
same vanity he has lately directed the loves of a Beloche pair, 
as related in some of the country tales, to be translated into 
Persian verse, upon the model of Jani’s Eusuph and Zuleika, 
that the diffusion of these poems may establish the fame of 
Sinde as well in letters as in arms. The Futteh Nameh is 
rehearsed in durbar, and many of the courtiers mark their 
adulation, by committing the most fulsome passages to me¬ 
mory. Whenever the prince moves abroad he is preceded by 
a poet, who proclaims his praise in loud and hyperbolick 
strain, and the prince does not blush, occasionally to animate 
him by a command to raise his voice.” 



48 


VISIT TO THE 


seemed to be of superior rank. There was no 
crowding for places ; the rabble had been shut en¬ 
tirely out of doors ; and there was a degree of 
stillness and solemnity throughout the whole, 
and an order and decorum in the demeanour of 
each individual, which, together with the brilliant 
display 1 have mentioned, impressed me with a 
feeling of awe and respect, I could not have anti¬ 
cipated. It is scarcely necessary, after what I have 
described, to say that their Highnesses received 
me in a state durbar. The native agent who had 
accompanied the two last embassies from our go¬ 
vernment was present, and assured me that the 
arrangements on this occasion, and the nature of 
my reception were very different, indeed far supe¬ 
rior to any ceremonial he had seen during a resi¬ 
dence of twenty years in Sinde. 

As my boots had been taken off at the door, 
I determined not to uncover my head, and accord¬ 
ingly walked up the centre of the hall with my 
hat on. The whole family immediately saluted 
me, and I was requested to take my seat in front 
of the chief Ameers, and partly on their musnud. 
A conversation was at once commenced in the 
Persian language, and I w T as asked fifty questions 
in a breath ; Are you well ? Are you happy ? 
Are you pleased ? Have you been treated w r ell ? 
&c. In answer to these civilities, I replied in the 
best manner I could ; that, from the moment 
I had entered Sinde, I had experienced nothing 


49 


COURT OF SINDE. 

but kindness and respect, and that I was thankful 
to them for the marked attentions I had received. 
Meer Kurm Ali observed that I was a guest who 
had come by invitation; that every thing they 
had was at my disposal; that they had appointed 
their chief minister, my Mihmandar or entertainer, 
who had their orders to comply with my wishes 
in every respect; and that, at a short distance from 
the town, a garden had been prepared for my re¬ 
ception, which I might either occupy as I chose, 
or take up my residence with themselves within 
the fortress of Hyderabad. 

Several inquiries then followed regarding Mr 
Elphinstone and Sir John Malcolm, Sir Evan 
Nepean, the Governor-General, and his Majesty 
King George the Fourth, for all of whom the 
Ameers professed the greatest respect and esteem. 
The resident in Cutch, they observed, had acted 
the part of a friend in permitting me to visit 
Sinde ; and by the grace of God the friendship be¬ 
tween themselves and the British government, 
would now be greater than it had ever been at any 
former period. From this, their Highnesses pas¬ 
sed to the subject of medicine, commencing a mi¬ 
nute scrutiny regarding my age, as well as how and 
where I had studied my profession. In this re¬ 
spect, they seemed inclined at first to adopt the 
opinion not uncommon in Europe, that youth and 
knowledge can scarcely be conjoined; and they 
were evidently somewhat disappointed that I had 


D 


50 


VISIT TO THE 


neither gravity nor gray hairs to support my pre¬ 
tensions. The first observation I heard made be¬ 
tween themselves, was in reference to my youth¬ 
ful appearance. 

After having sat about an hour, all strangers were 
ordered to withdraw, and the subject of Mourad 
Ali’s illness was introduced. From his general 
appearance, I could scarcely have conceived that 
he was labouring under any disease, however 
trivial; and on examination I was gratified to find, 
that, instead of an immediately dangerous disorder, 
as I had anticipated, the case was one, which, with 
proper care and attention, might be relieved, if 
not perfectly cured. The whole family expressed 
great satisfaction when I announced this circum¬ 
stance to them, and expressed my belief that his 
Highness would be restored to health without 
a surgical operation, of which they seemed to en¬ 
tertain great apprehensions. Towards the end 
of the interview, when the reserve on both sides 
had worn off, and 1 found I was to be met with 
confidence and civility, I considered it my duty 
to take every becoming means in my power to 
conciliate them by my manners and conversation. 
In this I had reason to believe I succeeded ; for 
at my departure from their presence, both the 
chief Ameers assured me they had never before 
met with an European with whom they had been 
so much pleased. 

From the durbar I was conducted by the Nu- 


COURT OF SINDE. 


51 


wab Wullee Mahomrned Khan through the same 
eager crowd to the place allotted for my residence, 
a large walled garden about a quarter of a mile 
from the town, the trees of which had been hewn 
down, and the cultivation destroyed to make room 
for myself and my people. Several tents were pitch¬ 
ed, and among the rest one of great dimensions 
(about forty feet long with the walls twelve feet 
high) made entirely of green cloth with scarlet 
ornaments, and fitted up with cushions, carpets, 
couches, &c. which was intended as my sitting- 
room, and had really a striking appearance. I had 
scarcely recovered the surprise occasioned by the 
scene arround me, which, with the occurrences of 
the morning, reminded me strongly of some I had 
read of in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 
when my attention was further attracted by the 
arrival of several attendants bearing large trays 
of provisions. One of these was placed at my feet, 
and contained about a dozen silver dishes filled 
with prepared viands of different description, all 
ornamented with gold leaf, for my own breakfast. 
The others held 44 baked meats” also, for the Ma¬ 
li ommedans among my servants, and were accom¬ 
panied by a profusion of fruit, sweetmeats, and 
articles of food for the Hindoos who were with 
me. The same ceremony was repeated in the 
evening; and it was only when I positively de¬ 
clared that I could make no use of what was so 




52 VISIT TO THE 

liberally supplied, that the practice was in part 
discontinued. 

In the afternoon of the same day I was again 
summoned to the presence of the Ameers, when 
I saw them privately, and without state or 
parade. They were dressed nearly in the same 
manner as in the morning, but without cummer¬ 
bunds and arms, and had very few attendants. 
Their conversation was extremely conciliatory, 
and referred chiefly to the subject which interest¬ 
ed them most, the illness of Mourad Ali. His 
Highness had been suffering for five months ; and 
I learned that they had not sent for me until all 
the native practitioners had given up hopes of 
curing his disease, and until he himself had des¬ 
paired of his recovery. His brothers, Futteh and 
Ghoolam Ali, had died of, or rather perhaps with, 
complaints of a similar nature, which seem to be 
hereditary in the family, and he himself had gone 
so far as to make his will, settle his property, and 
prepare long written advices for his children. 
Under these circumstances, the anxiety of Mourad 
Ali and all connected with him for the restoration 
of his health, will be readily understood, as well 
as their subsequent satisfaction. 

No time was of course lost in at once entering 
on the cure ; but I encountered some difficulty at 
first in overcoming the habitual distrust of the 
Ameers to try medicine from the hands of a 
stranger, and suffered not a little inconvenience, 


COURT OF S1NDE. 


53 

personally, from being obliged to go shares with 
my patient in my own prescriptions, according to 
the Beloche rule, which requires the physician to 
swallow one pill before he administers another. 
Mourad Ali positively refused to take any remedy 
without this previous ceremony ; and as my com¬ 
plaisance could not bring me to inflict on myself 
the nauseous dose more than twice, an unfortunate 
attendant was selected as the subject of experi¬ 
ment, and underwent, without mercy or necessity, 
such a course of continued sweating and purgation, 
as must have left on his mind and body, any thing 
but a favourable impression of the European mode 
of practising physic. Latterly, when I became more 
intimate with the Ameers, the custom was dis¬ 
pensed with ; though they took care to intimate to 
me that their doing so was the highest compliment 
they could have paid me, and even made so much 
of the matter, as to direct their envoy to bring 
it to the notice of the Governor of Bombay, as an 
extraordinary proof of their confidence and friend¬ 
ship for the British. 

By a rigid attention to diet and constitutional 
treatment, together with the application of the 
most simple dressings to the disease itself, all dan¬ 
gerous symptoms disappeared by the 20th of No¬ 
vember, that is, ten days after my arrival at Hyde¬ 
rabad. I will confess that I was myself taken by 
surprise ; and it is hardly possible to describe the 
gratification and gratitude of the Ameers when I 


54 


VISIT TO THE 


announced to Mourad Ali the propriety of his re¬ 
suming with moderation his usual pursuits. The 
illness of one confines the whole family ; and none 
of them, therefore, had breathed fresh air outside 
the fortress for many months. Preparations were 
immediately made for a hunting excursion, to 
which they all proceeded, and I was also invited. 
The Ameer suffered no inconvenience for some 
weeks from his disorder; while a dread of the 
consequences prevented his neglecting the regimen 
prescribed. But when this ceased he was guilty 
of some acts of imprudence and excess, which 
brought on a slight relapse, but did not much re¬ 
tard his general recovery. 

The suddenness of a cure so unexpected, and 
which was to be attributed in a great measure, 
to the removal of the irritating substances former¬ 
ly applied, impressed the Ameers with the idea 
that there were no bounds to my skill in my pro¬ 
fession ; and some fortuitous circumstances contri¬ 
buted to strengthen the delusion. I had occasion 
to administer a small quantity of a powerful 
medicine to Mourad Ali, who declined taking 
it even after the same dose had been tried on the 
luckless attendant I have mentioned, till he was 
positively assured by me what would be the exact 
effect upon himself. I saw at once that this was 
in their estimation a grand test of my knowledge ; 
and it was one certainly which perplexed me con¬ 
siderably. Having no alternative, however, I 


COURT OF SINDE. 


55 


boldly hazarded a guess, which the event, luckily 
for my reputation, proved correct; and this cir¬ 
cumstance, trifling as it may seem, excited so much 
the attention of the Ameers that they alluded to 
it often afterwards. 

But to nothing, in this respect, was I more in¬ 
debted than to the sulphate of quinine; a remedy 
hitherto perfectly unknown in Sinde, and the effect 
of which, as it scarcely ever fails in stopping the 
intermittent fevers of natives, I could generally 
foretell with a degree of precision that astonished 
them. By means of this valuable medicine, I was 
enabled shortly after my arrival, to cure, in two 
days, a favourite child of the prime minister, who 
had been suffering from fever for months together, 
with several other persons in the immediate ser¬ 
vice of the Ameers ; and I would no doubt have 
gone on to raise my character higher, had not 
their Highnesses, the moment they discovered the 
effect of the quinine, seized the phial which con¬ 
tained it without ceremony, and ordered it to be 
sealed and locked up for their own proper use at 
a future period. Even afterwards, when I myself 
fell sick, no solicitations could induce them to part 
with a single grain, though I was dangerously ill; 
and when at my departure, I made a request for 
the bottle in exchange for another, as it was 
one which belonged to a valuable medicine chest, 
the proposal was at once rejected, evidently from 


56 


VISIT TO THE 


* 

an idea, that it might share with its contents some 
supposed talismanic virtue. 

Sinde would be a fair field for English quackery 
to flourish in. The Ameers never thought of 
doubting that I had the power of restoring the 
vigour of youth, provided I was disposed to do so ; 
and Meer Sohrab sent me a letter from Shikarpoor, 
requesting me to bring to his senses one of his 
children who had been twelve years an idiot! 
Meer Noor Mahommed was disappointed that I 
did not possess the lamp of Aladdin or the wand 
of Prospero, to transform his mean and contemp¬ 
tible figure into the stately form of his brother 
Nusseer Khan. I was applied to by Meer Ma¬ 
hommed to remove a white speck from the neck of 
one of the beauties of his Seraglio, which had been 
born with her ; and his Highness was evidently dis¬ 
pleased when my attempts proved unsuccessful. 
The circumstances of my interview with this 
lady are curious. It was proposed that I should 
meet her in a garden, with a wall about five feet' 
high between us'; but as I objected to this mode 
of examining a patient, she was brought to my 
tent, muffled up among a crowd of old and ugly 
females, her attendants. She was very beautiful, 
almost as fair as an European, and altogether a 
favourable specimen of the women of Sinde, who 
are superior in appearance to those of India. I 
saw several dancing girls, whose elegant forms 
might have graced the harem of the Caliph Walid. 


57 


COURT OF SINDE. 

In proportion as Mourad Ali’s health recovered, 
the kindness and attention of the Ameers towards 
me increased. During my stay at Hyderabad, 
for the succeeding two months and a-half, every 
means were adopted by them that could afford me 
comfort or amusement. The vizier waited on me 
every morning and afternoon to accompany me 
to the durbar, where 1 passed six hours, and often 
more, daily in their company, and where they re¬ 
ceived me latterly in nearly the same manner as 

#• 

they did the younger princes. After the first or 
second visit the ceremony of taking off the shoes, 
which was, I understand, rigidly insisted on during 
the two or three short interviews the late envoys 
had with them, was entirely dispensed with; and 
the whole arrangement of their court was changed, 
that a chair might be introduced for me. No 
entreaties could induce them to discontinue the 
extravagant system of entertainment for me and 
my people, which was kept up to the very last 
day I remained in Sinde. 

The conduct of a despotic prince regulates 
that of his followers. No sooner did the Sindian 
courtiers observe the disposition of the Ameers 
towards me, than they began to vie with each 
other in their obsequiousness. While I was at 
Hyderabad I was visited, I believe, by the heads 
of all the tribes resident at court. Letters were 
read in my presence at the durbar which were to 
be sent to the Sikhs and other allies, announcing 


58 


VISIT TO THE 


% 


Mourad Ali J s recovery, and highly complimentary 
to myself, together with congratulatory addresses 
from Meers Sohrab and Thara, entreating that 
every distinction might be paid me. Persian 
verses filled with the grossest flattery were re¬ 
peated daily, and appeared extremely satisfactory 
to the Ameers, who themselves took the trouble 
to explain to me the meaning of the difficult pas¬ 
sages. 

The example of the rulers had a proportionate 
effect on the people of Sinde. The intelligence 
of Mourad Ali’s recovery passed through the 
country like wild-fire, and crowds flocked from all 
quarters, in the expectation of obtaining relief, 
many of them from incurable diseases. In every 
direction, around the garden which I occupied, 
there were encampments of strangers who had 
come from a distance. My gate was surrounded 
by petitioners from morning to night; and the 
moment I appeared abroad, I was assailed by the 
most piteous entreaties for medicine and assistance. 
All these demands on me I was obliged to at¬ 
tend to ; nor is there any period of my life during 
which I underwent more continued labour than in 
Sinde. The Ameers gave me credit for my assi¬ 
duity, and thanked me for expending, as they had 
been informed by report, four thousand rupees 
worth of medicine on their subjects. I assured 
them of my readiness to do my endeavours, but 
did not conceive it necessary to add, that the ut- 

4 


COURT OF SINDE. 


59 


most the Honourable Company was likely to suffer 
on the occasion was nearer forty rupees than 
the amount they had alluded to. 

The consequence of my unremitting exertions 
was a violent attack of fever, which confined me 
to my bed for several days. The kindness I then 
experienced ought not to be omitted here. The 
Ameers did indeed refuse me the quinine; but 
they were constant in their inquiries, and extreme 
in their expressions of anxiety. During the whole 
of a day in which I was delirious, Wullee Ma- 
hommed Khan, whose good feeling I had gained 
by attention to his children, and frequent conver¬ 
sations with himself, never left my bedside; and 
when I recovered my senses, the first object which 
met my eye, was the respected old man kneeling 
in earnest prayer for my recovery. Such Sa- 
maritanism would do honour, and might be an 
example, to many of a purer creed and better 
education. 

The supreme power in Sinde is understood by 
foreign states to be vested in the hands of the two 
youngest, and surviving brothers mentioned in 
the early part of this narrative, Meers Kurm and 
Mourad Ali, who are known, both at home and 
abroad, by the designation of the Chief Ameers, 
and whose seals are affixed to all public documents 
issued in the name of the government. But al¬ 
though these have, certainly, no equal in political 
consequence, there are, nevertheless, other members 


60 


VISIT TO THE 


of the family who are scarcely inferior in rank to 

& 

their Highnesses at the court of Hyderabad. 
Both Futteh and Gholam Ali left sons to whom 
they bequeathed their shares in the administration* 
and who, although they have been, on account of 
their youth and the grasping spirit of their uncles, 
kept much in the back ground, have lately acquired 
a degree of influence in the state. Meer Sobdar, 
in particular, the son of Futteh Ali, who had been 
consigned to neglect, and appeared till within these 
few months as an humble attendant in the train 
of the Chief Ameers, has, since I left Sinde, raised 
himself, by a successful rebellion, to almost an 
equality with them; and Meer Mahommed, the son 
of Gholam Ali, would no doubt be equally fortu¬ 
nate had he spirit or inclination to hazard the at¬ 
tempt. The two sons, also, of Mourad Ali, Meers 
Noor Mahommed, and Nusseer Khan, must be 
enumerated amongst the heads of the government. 

All these chiefs are in possession of portions of 
Sinde, the revenues and control of which they re¬ 
spectively enjoy. During the lifetime of Meer 
Futteh Ali, no division took place in this respect, 
and his younger brothers were content to owe to 
his liberality the means of supporting their ex- 
pences and dignity. After his death the province 
was portioned out into four equal shares, of which 
two were allotted to Ghoolam Ali, who engaged 
to pay the usual charges of the state, and one 
each to Kurm and Mourad Ali. Since the de- 

3 



61 


COURT OF SINDE. 

mise of Ghoolarn Ali in 1811, several divisions 
have, at different times, taken place, and Mourad 
Ali, on the plea of having descendants, has con¬ 
trived to despoil his brother and Meer Mahom- 
med of much of their possessions; but, with the 
exception of the districts in the hands of Meers 
Sohrab and Thara, who will be mentioned in the 
sequel, the country is partitioned at this moment * 
into four unequal shares, of which the largest be¬ 
longs to Mourad Ali, and the others to Kurm Ali, 
Meer Mahommed and Sobdar. Mourad Ali’s 
territory is subdivided into portions for his sons 
and himself. It is not my intention to say any 
thing further regarding the revenues of Sinde, ex¬ 
cept that they are not supposed to exceed in all 
forty lacs of rupees annually. 

In addition to the princes above alluded to, 
there are many other nobles of the Talpoor tribe, 
always resident at the court of the Ameers; but 
although they all enjoy the title of Meer or Lord, 
none of them are permitted to interfere in the 
affairs of the state, and they derive their lustre 
and importance solely from their relationship to 
the reigning family. Of this lineage are Meers 
Sohrab and Thara, who command in separate dis¬ 
tricts of their own. They are feudatories of the 
principal Ameers, who, at the period of the ex¬ 
pulsion of the Caloras, acquired, by their own 


* June 1828. 



I 


62 VISIT TO THE 

bravery, considerable portions of territory, which 
they have ever since retained. Meer Sohrab re¬ 
sides at Shikarpoor, on the borders of the Punjab, 
and Meer Thara at Meerpoor, in the Thurr, 
where they hold separate courts of their own. 
Meer Sohrab, though opposed at first to Futteh 
Ali, * appears generally to have supported the 

* “ When foreign attack no longer threatened, Meer 
Sohrab Khan, with a majority of the Talpoory and other chiefs, 
proposed that the son of Meer Abdulla Khan, Meer Ghoolam 
H ussain Khan, who has now arrived at years of discretion, 
should assume the government of Sinde, to which by direct 
descendancy he was heir, and in consideration of whose mino¬ 
rity only, it had, it was urged, been entrusted to Meer Futteh 
Ali Khan. To this argument Meer Futteh Ali Khan re¬ 
plied by putting his foot in the stirrup. Both parties col¬ 
lected their forces, and, three whole days, were the ranks 
drawn out on either side in battle array. In this intestine 
contention of the Talpoory tribe, relations were divided on 
the different sides, sons threatened fathers, and brothers forgot 
their birth; the elders of the tribe wisely held out the mis¬ 
chief of such an unnatural butchery; and the women flung 
themselves between their swords to prevent it. Both parties 
were persuaded. Meer Ghoolam Hussain Khan acknow¬ 
ledged the sovereignty, and accepted the protection under 
which he now is, of Meer Futteh Ali Khan, and he acknow¬ 
ledged the independence and perpetuity of the distinct pos¬ 
sessions of Meer Sohrab Khan and Meer Tarrah Khan. 
This accommodation perfected, Meer Futteh Ali Khan made 
a handsome provision in jaghires for three brothers he had, 
Meer Ghoolam Ali Khan, Meer Kurm Ali Khan, and Meer 
Mourad Ali Khan, according to their seniority, and in order 
to preserve them in an harmonious support of the general 



COURT OF SINDE. 63 

Ameers ; but Meer Thara has, on more than.one 
occasion, gone to war with them, and suffered se¬ 
verely as the penalty of his rashness. They are 
both very old men, and Meer Thara is blind with 
years. His son, Ali Mourad, is probably the 
most troublesome subject under the Sinde durbar, 
and has lately rendered himself well known both 
to the British and Cutch governments by the pro¬ 
tection he has afforded the Meanah plunderers. 
The relationship of these leaders to the Ameers 
may be seen from the genealogical table of the 
Talpoors. * * 

To a casual observer, it might appear that the 
power in Sinde was pretty equally divided among 
the aristocratic members of its government; but 
a closer inspection will show, that the fabric, 
though upheld by many, is in reality for the ele¬ 
vation of a single despot. This is Meer Mourad 
Ali, whose superior energy of character enables 
him to carry with him the feelings and support 
of the other branches of the family. He is younger 
than his brother, but the latter is entirely subser¬ 
vient to his views, and in common with the rest, 


interest of the family, for which they had all laboured in the 
field, and Meer Ghoolam Ali Khan with signal zeal and 
effect, he admitted them likewise to a participation in his 
power and placed their musnuds on each side of his own, 
an order which is preserved to the present day/’— Crow. 

* Meer Thara died in August 1829, leaving his possessions 
to his son A li Mourad. 



64 


VISIT TO THE 


is willing to acknowledge him as the only efficient 
head, and representative. 

In explaining my sentiments as to the cause of 
this fact, it may appear overstrained to speak of 
the affections of the heart, in reference to Asiatic 
despots. Still there is one virtue for which this fa¬ 
mily has ever been distinguished, wdiich has carried 
with it its own reward, and to a continued exer¬ 
cise of which, they have owed their greatness, and 
Sinde its tranquillity, for the last thirty years. I 
allude to the personal attachment, mingled per¬ 
haps with policy, which induced Futteh Ali, on 
his obtaining his own power, to place the musnuds 
of his brothers on an equality with his own, and 
restrained them, individually, from any attempt 
to usurp the whole authority thus divided amongst 
them. Although it might be supposed that rival 
and conflicting interests would weaken and destroy 
so delicate a feeling as that I have now adverted 
to, it is nevertheless still perceptible, generally, in 
all the branches of the family, and induces the 
younger to yield a ready obedience to the wishes 
of the elder, and at all events to restrain their own 
ambitious projects, during the lifetime of their se¬ 
niors. Fanciful as this opinion may seem, it is 
impossible that any person could have witnessed 
the constant anxiety and unwearied attention of 
Mourad Ali’s relations for his recovery, without 
coming to the same conclusion ; nor can I indeed 
account, in any satisfactory manner, for the cir- 


65 




COURT OF SINDE. 

cumstance of a complicated machine like the go¬ 
vernment of Sinde, apparently so ill connected, 
having held together sp long, without a kindred 
sympathy in its component parts. 

Mourad Ali is about fifty-five years of age, of 
low stature, and stout habit of body. His com¬ 
plexion is rather fair ; and his countenance is the 
index of a sullen and gloomy mind. He is cold 
and repulsive in his manners, seldom relaxes into a 
smile, and never condescends to familar conversa- 

i • 

tion. His personal attachments are confined to 
the circle of his family ; and whether it be affec¬ 
tion which procures him their support, or a dread 
of his power, which induces them to accord it, at 
all events it is a cruel and remorseless disposition, 
on his part, and terror on that of his subjects, 
which enables him to sway the destinies of Sinde. 
Inconsistent as it may appear, this tyrant is at 
heart a poor hypochondriac, constantly haunt¬ 
ed by the fear of death and the phantoms of his 
own gloomy imagination. Some of his subjects 
deny him even the merit of personal courage, 
though such a supposition is highly improbable; 
but I have myself known him pass several sleep¬ 
less nights, from a horror of the consequences of 
bodily derangement of the most trivial descrip¬ 
tion. 

The prevailing feature of Mourad Ali’s cha¬ 
racter is avarice ; and he is ever too ready to sa¬ 
crifice, for its gratification, his own dignity and 


E 


VISIT TO THE 


66 

the interests of his people. Seldom making pro¬ 
mises, he even more rarely fulfils them ; and alto¬ 
gether his character may be summed up as that 
of a selfish and gloomy despot, an Asiatic Ti¬ 
berius, or Philip the Second, ruling a kingdom 
by the energies of his mind, with none of the 

better feelings of the human heart. His resem- 

% 

blance to the former of these monsters is so com¬ 
plete, that I cannot refrain from adding here the 
words of the Roman historian, as equally descrip¬ 
tive of both : 44 Multa indicia ssevitiae, quam- 
quam premantur, erumpere—sen natura, sive ad- 
suetudine suspensa semper et obscura verba— 
odia in longum jaciens, quae reconderet auctaque 
promeret.” 

The character of Meer Kurm Ali forms a per¬ 
fect contrast to that of his brother. He is a 
man of approved personal bravery, and, as far as 
the etiquette of the court permits, is cheerful, 
condescending, and even affable. Fond of dress 
and display, he courts popular applause, which 
Mourad Ali affects to despise ; and till lately he 
was generous to profusion. Even yet he is liberal, 
although he now shows a disposition to follow the 
general policy of the Sinde court, and to hoard 
money. I found the public voice at Hyderabad 
decidedly in his favour, as a prince who was kind 
to his subjects and attendants, and who was strict 
in the performance of his promises. In person 
he is below the middle size, with a pleasing coun- 


COURT OF SI NOE. 


67 


tenance and engaging manners. Although but 
five years older than Mourad Ali, he bears in his 
appearance the furrows of age, with traces of 
early intemperance; and, in all human probability, 
he will ere long leave his more robust and ener¬ 
getic brother the unrivalled actor in the scene. 

Kurm Ali is possessed of slender talents, though 
his education has been good ; and he is of so inde¬ 
cisive and easy a disposition, that he has accus¬ 
tomed himself through life to regulate his con¬ 
duct chiefly by the advice and wishes of others. 
It is not unlikely, therefore, that, were he even 
to survive his brother, he would sink, not un¬ 
willingly, into obscurity, as he has no children of 
his own, and would probably have neither the 
power nor the inclination to control ( his nephews. 
On the other hand, such is the kindly feeling 
which exists between the brothers, that, were he 
to die first, Mourad Ali would no doubt inherit 
his treasures and possessions, and retain the sole 
authority in his own hands. 

Meer Mahommed Khan, the son of Ghoolam 
Ali, is the next in rank to the chief Ameers. He 
is about the age of thirty, and a handsome 
man, though somewhat disfigured by a hare-lip. 
He inherited from his father great wealth and 
political consequence in Sinde. For some time he 
took his seat on the musnud with his uncles ; 
and, in common with them, he enjoyed the ho¬ 
nour of a salute from the ramparts of Hyderabad, 


68 


VISIT TO THE 


when he appeared abroad. Being, however, of a 
mild and unambitious character, he has renoun¬ 
ced, apparently without regret, all this semblance 
of dignity ; together with the most substantial 
part of his property, of which he has been de¬ 
spoiled, on various pretences, by Mourad Ali and 
his favourite servants, from an inability to con¬ 
trol them, or to manage his own affairs. He is 
singularly good-natured, quite indifferent to state 
or parade, and much liked by his immediate re¬ 
tainers, many of whom have made large fortunes 
in his service. 

Meer Mahommed has no family; and I may 
here remark, that it is the custom of the Court of 
Sinde to put to death all children born to the 
princes of slave women. The butchery which 
this horrid cruelty engenders must be shocking, 
as I was assured that one member of the family 
alone had consigned to the tomb no less than 
twenty-seven of his illegitimate offspring. The 
authority of ages may sanction, and the rites of 
religion sanctify, the inhuman practices of Suttee 
and infanticide among the Hindoos; and we may 
pity, if we cannot pardon, the misguided feeling 
which impels the proud Rajpoot to crush at her 
birth the daughter, whose preservation, as in 
Cutch, too often ends in her prostitution ; but 
humanity turns with unmingled horror from the 
monstrous barbarity I have now mentioned, which 
is as repugnant to the precepts of the Koran as it is 

3 


COURT OF SINDE. 


69 


to the dictates of nature, and for which we search in 
vain for any reasonable apology. 44 They are utter¬ 
ly lost,” says Mahommed, 44 who have slain their 
children foolishly, without knowledge, and have 
forbidden that which God hath given them for 
food ; devising a lie against God.” 

Meer Mourad Ali’s eldest son, Noor Mahom¬ 
med, is about thirty years of age, and may be 
considered as nearly the counterpart of his father, 
with all the bad, and but few of the strong, parts of 
his character. He was very unpopular ; and I 
never heard of any virtue he possessed, except a 
selfish attachment to his parent. Accumulation 
of wealth is the apparent object of his life. This 
chief is the only one of the family who is illite¬ 
rate ; and I have myself been present when he 
was obliged to request the assistance of a servant 
in composing a common Persian note to his fa¬ 
ther. He has a son, a fine-looking boy, named 
Meer Shadad, who has attained the age of twelve 
years. 

Meer Mahommed Nusseer Khan is the second 
son of Mourad Ali, and is by far the most engag¬ 
ing and popular of the reigning family in Sinde. 
He is twenty-five years of age, of handsome 
figure though rather corpulent, with much dig¬ 
nity of manners, and a noble expression of coun¬ 
tenance, undisfigured by the least resemblance to 
his father or brother. The dissimilarity, fortu¬ 
nately, is as complete in character as in personal 


70 


VISIT TO THE 


appearance. Nusseer Khan is as generous as they 
are sordid, and has lavished the treasures which 
were allotted him with profuse liberality ; a qua¬ 
lity which, whether a virtue or a vice, has ever 
been known to receive general praise and appro¬ 
bation, particularly in Asiatic countries. 

During my march to Hyderabad, bis High¬ 
ness’s virtues and poetical genius formed the 
theme of constant commendation ; and, presuming 
that the vanity of authors was much the same in 
all parts of the world, I took an opportunity, on 
my first visit, to request, as a particular favour, 
that he would honour me with a copy of his works, 
entitled the Dewan Jaffieri, the fame of which, I 
added, had extended all over India. This com¬ 
pliment was most graciously received ; and a few 
days after he presented to me a beautiful illumi¬ 
nated copy of them, with an inscription on the 
title-page written by himself. If they are really 
his own composition, they do him infinite credit; 
but I must confess that his conversation never 
exhibited any proofs of an exalted imagination. 

The present of the Dewan Jaffieri was follow¬ 
ed by gifts of a superior description from the 
other Ameers ; who, although they could not com¬ 
pliment me with books written by themselves, 
begged my acceptance of elegant editions of the 
Poems of Hafiz and Sadi, some of which had had 
a place for many generations in the library of 
the Caloras, and, in addition to their real value, 


COURT OF SINDE. 


71 


were beautiful specimens of Persian penmanship* 
Amongst several curiosities given me at the same 
time, Wullee Mahommed Khan presented me 
with a pair of handsome green slippers, which 
had been pressed by the royal feet of Shah Shuja 
Ool Moolk, the king of Cabiil, and for which he 
entertained a true vizier-like reverence. 

Nusseer Khan has ever expressed a favourable 
feeling towards the British government. He 
has been unremitting in his civilities to our na¬ 
tive agent at Hyderabad ; and, during my resi¬ 
dence there, he was even more attentive to me than 
the others. He is the darling of the soldiery, 
from excelling in all manly exercises, and the 
most likely of the younger branches of the family 
to attain that pre-eminence which some one or 
other will probably in the end acquire. He 
does not appear a very determined or aspir¬ 
ing character ; but it is impossible to foretell how 
his disposition may be influenced by a fair field 
for his ambition, particularly as the stream of 
public opinion is so decidedly in his favour. 

I had no opportunity of becoming personally 
acquainted with Meer Sobdar, who, when I was in 
Sinde, happened to be out of favour at court. He 
made some advances to me; but the Ameers object¬ 
ed to my having any communication with him. He 
is the son of Futteh Ali, the chief to whom the Tal- 
poor family owes its greatness ; and he was born 
in 1801 , a few hours before the death of his fa- 


72 


VISIT TO THE 


ther, who had only time to entreat the kindness 
of his brothers to his infant before he expired. 
For many years Sobdar was the adopted child ot 
Kurm Ali ; but, being subject to epilepsy, and 
having one day fallen down in the durbar, in 
consequence of that distressing disorder, Mourad 
Ali contemptuously asked his brother what he ex¬ 
pected to make of such an unfortunate wretch ; 
and since then, until very lately, he has lived in 
obscurity, on a paltry pension of 25,000 rupees 
per annum. 

Sobdar naturally traced his misfortunes to 

•J 

Mourad Ali; and when this prince was seized 
with his late dangerous illness, he and his few 
adherents could scarcely suppress a feeling of ex¬ 
ultation at his expected death. This, together 
with a demand he had made publicly for the resto¬ 
ration of his rights, inflamed the rage of Mourad 
Ali ; and although Sobdar was obliged, by the 
commands of the Ameers, to attend at the durbar, 
I observed that he was never addressed by any 
one, nor received with the slightest demonstration 
of respect. 

But Mourad Ali had mistaken, in some mea¬ 
sure, the character of Sobdar, who was secretly 
carrying on intrigues with some of the surviving 
friends of his father, and with Meer Ali Mourad, 
the turbulent son of Meer Thara, to obtain a res¬ 
titution of his birth-right. My presence pre¬ 
vented his bringing his plans to maturity ; but 


COURT OF SINDE. 


73 


immediately after I left Hyderabad, lie found 
means to escape to the Fort of Islamkote in the 
desert, where he was joined in the course of live 
or six days by the conspirators and their follow¬ 
ers, amounting to 15,000 men, and marched di¬ 
rect on Hyderabad. The principal Ameers were 
taken perfectly unawares at the boldness of the 
undertaking, and prudently settled matters by a 
compromise; consenting to grant Sobdar a share of 
the country, and a participation in the government. 
This young prince’s elevation was highly unsa¬ 
tisfactory to all the other chief members of the 
family ; and it is most probable, that, when a fa¬ 
vourable opportunity presents itself, no means will 
be left untried to remove a barrier so prejudicial 
to their interests. 

The personal appearance of Meer Sobdar is fa¬ 
vourable. He is about the middle size, and ra¬ 
ther inclined to corpulency. In his manners he is 
formal; although, from the restraint in which he 
was constantly placed, I had probably no means 
of judging correctly of him in this respect. Great 
pains were, I understand, taken with his educa¬ 
tion ; and although he is, no doubt, a man of 
weak mind, and most likely the tool only of a 
party, he is not deficient in literary taste and at¬ 
tainments, if a knowledge of Persian books and 
poetry can be dignified by such an appellation. 

The government of Sinde is a pure military des- 


74 


VISIT TO THE 


potism; and the great misfortune of the people, next 
to the circumstance of their being entirely at the 
mercy of their rulers, is, that the latter are ignorant 
of the important truth, that in a well regulated 
kingdom the interest of the prince and the people 
are identical. Like all Asiatic governors, the 
Ameers have no idea of sacrificing present gains, 
however trivial, for future advantages ; and, as 
they unfortunately consider the stability and gran¬ 
deur of their dynasty as depending chiefly on the 
accumulation of wealth, their course of internal 
policy is directed to this object, and is pursued 
with comparatively little benefit to themselves, 
and great detriment to their people. Under this 
short-sighted system, the imposts and taxation in 
Sinde are enormous, and have the effect of para¬ 
lyzing nearly the whole trade, and deeply affecting 
the industry of the country. The revenues are 
farmed to the highest bidders ; who, as they enjoy 
their contracts only by the grace of their masters, 
and can never, on any pretence, obtain exemptions 
for themselves, are obliged to exert to the utmost, 
during their ephemeral reign, their powers of 
exaction and oppression. 

It has excited the surprise of every European 
who has cast a thought on this state of affairs, 
that a government, so formed and conducted, 
should have maintained its existence for so long 
a period. The family feeling which unites toge¬ 
ther the Ameers, I have alluded to ; and the his- 


COURT OF SINDE. 75 

tory of Asiatic kingdoms is the best evidence of 
what man will suffer with patience, and what 
princes may inflict with impunity. Sinde has, be¬ 
sides, advantages over other countries similarly si¬ 
tuated ; advantages which, to a certain extent, ena¬ 
ble her to struggle against the curses of misrule and 
ignorance. She is almost independent of the perio¬ 
dical rains, and of the famines and disasters too fre¬ 
quently attendant on the failure of these in the pro¬ 
vinces surrounding her. . Heaven has blessed her 
with a constant and never-failing boon in the river 
Indus,—that source of commerce and fertility of 
which no tyranny can despoil her ; which enables 
the cultivator not only to till his fields with little 
trouble or expence, but to look forward in due season 
to a certain harvest, and to transfer, should he wish 
it, with facility and profit, the abundant product 
of his toil to other countries. Notwithstanding 
all the opposition of the rulers, the same fruitful 
cause reduces the price of labour and of food lower 
than in Cutch ; the inhabitants of which are known 
in seasons of scarcity to seek invariably for sub¬ 
sistence in Sinde, rather than to emigrate into our 
own territories. Hence there is an appearance of 
plenty and contentment throughout this mis¬ 
governed land, which would surprise any traveller 
who did not take every circumstance into consi¬ 
deration. 

I may remark further, that there are bounds to 
the horrors of despotism as to all other human 


76 


VISIT TO THE 


evils ; and it is but justice to confess, that the 
Ameers seem rather to be ignorant of true notions 
of policy, and misled by the delusions of prejudice, 
than wantonly cruel and iniquitous in their pro¬ 
ceedings. Moreover, they cannot be blind to the 
danger and hopelessness of oppressing their subjects 
beyond certain limits; and, luckily for the latter, the 
system of finance carries with it a check which ope¬ 
rates partially in their favour. The government has 
seldom any greater sympathy with the farmer than 
with the ryot, and, consequently, is not deaf to ap¬ 
peals against him, or unwilling that discussions 
between the parties should be referred to the ex¬ 
pounders of the Mahommedan law. Another fact 
is, that, as the Mussulmans are all soldiers, and 

have rarely money or patience sufficient to become 

% 

lease-holders, the revenues are for the most part 
in the hands of Hindoos; a class which possesses 
little favour at court, and no influence or respec¬ 
tability in the country, except that of wealth. 
The farmers do not, as in Cutch, combine with 
their leases the power of civil magistrates ; and, 
as they are constant objects of jealousy and dislike 
to the Mahommedan military governors of the 
districts, who envy their riches and despise their 
persons and religion, the people no doubt profit by 
this application of the political maxim Divide 
et Impera. It is melancholy, however, to reflect 
that the only safeguard of property in Sinde is de¬ 
rived from a sort of balance between the evil pas- 


COURT OF ST NOE. 77 

sions of the rulers ; and that it may too often hap¬ 
pen to be the interest of the latter to unite, with 
one accord, to rob the helpless villager of the pro¬ 
fits of his labours. 

Yet even under all these disadvantages it may 
be doubted whether Sinde has for many years 
enjoyed comparatively greater blessings, or stood 
higher in political consequence than at the pre¬ 
sent moment. Ignorant and oppressive as her 
rulers are, her annals do not show that she has 
ever been much better governed in recent times ; 
and they have at least the merit of having main¬ 
tained her in a state of tranquil, and almost un¬ 
interrupted repose for the last thirty years. The 
restless and daring spirits also, who were instru¬ 
mental in bringing about the revolution which 
ended in the downfal of the Caloras, have, in the 
course of nearly half a century, either disappear¬ 
ed from the stage, or become incapacitated by 
years. The present generation know only by 
tradition of the murders and rapine of their fa¬ 
thers ; and while a calm has thus succeeded the 
tempest in Sinde, as in all empires which have 
undergone commotions, a degree of order and per¬ 
manency has gradually crept into the govern¬ 
ment which was before unknown to it. 

It is but too true that there are many signs of 
decay and depopulation in Sinde ; but the people 
invariably trace these evils to the season of civil dis¬ 
cord ; nor is there any evidence to show that they 


78 


VISIT TO THE 


have increased in any unusual degree, during the 
administration of the Ameers, or that the latter 
are really more indifferent to the interests or com¬ 
merce of their subjects than the later Caloras ; 
one of whom, Surufraz Khan, besides being a 
blood-thirsty tyrant, discouraged trade and manu¬ 
facture by every means in his power, and amongst 
the rest by expelling the British factory from 
Tatta.* The revenues have without doubt much 


* As a proof that the state of affairs in Sinde is not worse 
now than during the time of the Caloras, I give the follow¬ 
ing extract from Major Rennell, which was written before 
the elevation of the Talpoor family : “ The Hindoos, who 

were the original inhabitants of Sindy, and were reckoned to 
outnumber the Mahommedans in the proportion of ten to one in 
Captain Hamilton’s time, are treated with great rigour by the 
Mahommedan governors, and are not permitted to erect any 
pagodas or other places of worship, and this severity drives 

vast numbers into other countries_ Rennell’s Memoir. Mr 

Elphinstone also proves that many of the present evils of 
Sinde are to be attributed to causes altogether independent of 
the conduct of the Ameers. I have already mentioned that 
Abdool Nubbee had on one occasion obtained the support of 
the King of Cabul, and I give the words of Mr Elphinstone 
to show in what manner the assistance was afforded. “ About 
this time (1781) broke out the rebellion of the Talpoories, 
which ended in the expulsion of the governor of Sinde. In 
the course of next year, the King (Timour Shah) sent a force 
under Muddud Khan to reduce the insurgents, which soon 
overran the whole province. The Talpoories retired to their 
original desert, and the other inhabitants appear to have fled 
to the hills and jungles to avoid the Doorannee army. Mud¬ 
dud Khan laid waste the country with fire and sword; and so 



79 


COURT OF SINDE. 

diminished ; but the defalcation in this respect is 
to be attributed chiefly to sacrifices wilfully made 
by the Ameers, such as turning large tracts of 
their most productive districts into hunting fo¬ 
rests, instead of farming them out for the purpose 
of cultivation. * * 

The dismemberment of the Cabul monarchy, 
while it has absolved the Ameers from their irk¬ 
some allegiance to a lord paramount, and rendered 
them almost independent sovereigns, has enabled 
them to appropriate to themselves, without diffi¬ 
culty, the valuable district of Shikarpoor, which 
they seized about five years ago, and the addition¬ 
al revenues of which they now share with Meer 
Sohrab, who governs it. The same cause has re¬ 
lieved them from the obnoxious annual tribute of 


severe were his ravages that a dreadful famine followed his 
campaign, and the province of Sinde is said not yet to have 
recovered from what it suffered on that occasion.”— Elphin- 
stone’s Cabl'd . 

* Of the passion of the Ameers for hunting, the following 
is a characteristic anecdote. “ Meer Futteh Ali has depopu¬ 
lated, at a loss to his own revenue of between two and three 
lacs of rupees annually, one of the most fertile spots in the 
neighbourhood of Hyderabad, because frequented by a species 
of antelope called Kotapacha, which he has most pleasure in 
hunting. A short time ago the youngest brother (Mourad 
Ali) unrelentingly banished the inhabitants of an ancient vil¬ 
lage and razed it to the ground, because the crowing of the 
cocks and the grazing of the cattle disturbed the game in his 
brother’s jagire which was contiguous.”— Crow. 



80 


VISIT TO THE 


fifteen lacs of rupees, which they were bound to 
pay to the Affghaun court; for although Runjeet 
Sing has frequently intimated his intention, as 
head of the Cabul states, of demanding the usual 
subsidy, they have invariably denied his right; 
and he has either been too much occupied with 
his neighbours, or restrained by his political en¬ 
gagements, to lead an army into Sinde as the only 
means of enforcing his claim. 

The whole family of the Ameers are extremely 
strict in the observances of religion; and I have 
myself seen some of them kneel down to pray in 
the public durbar. An extraordinary difference,* 


* The difference of religious opinion which exists in the 
family of the Ameers, will appear even more extraordinary 
from the following remarks on the Sheeah and Soonee sects 
by Sir John Malcolm, and an extract I shall give from the 
pen of Major Pottinger. It must be borne in mind that the 
Ameers themselves are Beloches, and extremely proud of 
their descent. “ It is evident, therefore, that the Soonee and 
Sheeah faith can never exist in any concord with each other. 
A stranger to the name of Mahommed is more acceptable to a 
zealous man of either of these religions than the opposite sec¬ 
tary, who insults him with an hourly attack of his favourite 
tenets ; and their disagreement, as has been before stated, 
relates to matters of faith or rather opinion more than to 
practice/’— Malcolm’s Persia, Vol. ii. “ With regard to 
religion they (the Beloches) with a very few exceptions to 
the westward, are Soonee Mussulmans, and inveterate in 
their hatred and enmity against the Sheeas, under which 
persuasion, I am convinced, it would be more dangerous to 



COURT OF STNDE. 


81 


however, exists among them on this important 

point; which, strange to say, is the most marked 
» 

between the two brothers whom I have repre¬ 
sented as so much attached to each other. The 
Talpoors were originally Soonnees, like the Be- 
loches and Sindians in general ; but their con¬ 
nection with Persia has infected the court with 
the heresies of that kingdom ; and, with the ex¬ 
ception of Mourad Ali and Sobdar, who are still 
attached to the orthodox, doctrines, they have be¬ 
come Sheahs or followers of Ali. Meer Mourad 
Ali’s gloomy mind leads him to dwell much on 
the subject of religion, and to add to his other 
evil qualities those of a bigotted enthusiast. The 
rest are scarcely more liberal. At the time I 
was confined to my residence by indisposition, I 
sent a Hindoo medical assistant to bring me a re¬ 
port of the state of my patient; but when he went 
to the durbar, it was unanimously agreed that his 
putting his hand near the seat of the disease 
might be prejudicial, and he was dismissed ac¬ 
cordingly, with an apology to me for not accepting 
his services. 


appear in Belochistan, than even as a Christian— Pottin- 
ger’s Belochislan. The author of Anastasius also thus cha¬ 
racterizes the two sects : “ As the difference between them 
is small, so is the hatred proportionably intense. The Turks 
are all Soonnees, the Persians all Scheyis ; the former are 
more fanatical and the latter more superstitious/’ 



m 


VISIT TO THE 


When I left Si ride, I carried with me two gold 
watches belonging to the Ameers to be repaired ; 
but one of my servants having by chance hinted 
that there was a Hindoo in Bhooj who was qua¬ 
lified for the task, they were not consigned to my 
charge, till I gave a pledge that they should not 
pass into the hands of an accursed Soot Purust , 
or worshipper of idols. Among the inscriptions 
inlaid in gold on a liighly-valuable Damascus 
sword, with which their Highnesses presented me, 
there is a verse written by their vizier, and high¬ 
ly applauded by themselves, containing a prayer 
that a hundred thousand Hindoos may perish by 
its edge. * 

I had frequent discussions with the Ameers on 
the subject of religion. They professed to have 
a respect for the Christian faith, the founder of 
which had been esteemed a great prophet by Ma- 
hommed. Their questions and style of reasoning 
often amused me exceedingly, and particularly on 
one occasion, when they asked me whether 1 was 
one of the Christians who paid adoration to the 
hoofs of the ass which carried our Saviour into 

Jerusalem, and which they understood were still 

* 

preserved as a relic in a house of religious wor¬ 
ship in Europe. It is scarcely necessary to add, 


* <( Of ancient steel and water, I am the produce of Per¬ 
sia ; I am light in appearance, but I am heavy against my 
enemies. When a brave man wields me with his strength, 
a hundred thousand Hindoos will perish by my edge.” 



83 


COURT OF SINDF. 

that they know nothing of the distinctions be- 

__ / 

tween Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants. 

A spirit of religious toleration cannot be enume¬ 
rated among the few virtues of the Sinde govern¬ 
ment or its subjects ; and in no respect whatever is 
the oppression of the Ameers more apparent than in 
their zeal for the propagation of the Mahommedan 
faith. It is really difficult to conceive how any Hin¬ 
doos should have continued to reside in the coun¬ 
try ; and the fact can only be accounted for by that 
attachment, which man shares with the vegetable, 
to the soil in which he is reared. The indignities 
they suffer are of the most exasperating descrip¬ 
tion. They are even forced to adopt the Mahom¬ 
medan dress, and to wear beards. Till lately, 
none of this class were permitted to ride on horse¬ 
back ; and amongst the few who now enjoy the 
privilege, a small number only in the immediate 
service of government are allowed the comfort and 
honour, as it is esteemed, of a saddle. Merchants 
of wealth and respectability may be seen mounted 
on asses and mules; animals considered so un¬ 
clean, that none but the vilest outcasts in other 
countries can touch them with impunity : and, 
even from this humble conveyance, they are oblig¬ 
ed to descend and stand aside when any bloated 
Mussulman passes by. 

The Mahommedans are encouraged and ex¬ 
horted to destroy all the emblems of idolatry they 
may see in Sinde. The degraded and unfortunate 


84 


VISIT TO THE 


follower of Brahma, is denied the free exercise of 
his religion ; the tom-tom is seldom heard, being 
only beat when permission is granted ; and al¬ 
though there are a few temples without images at 
Hyderabad, the sound of music never echoes from 
their walls, It is in the power of any two “ true 
believers,” by declaring that a Hindoo has repeat¬ 
ed a verse from the Koran, or the words “ Ma- 
hommed the Prophet,” to procure his immediate 
circumcision. This is the most common, and, by 
the persecuted class themselves, considered the 
most cruel of all their calamities; while, as it is 
resorted to on the slightest pretence, and always 
performed with a mockery of its being for the 
eternal happiness of the sufferer, mental agony is 
made to add its bitterness to bodily infliction. 
Such severities recal to memory the stern fana¬ 
ticism which attended the standard of the Pro¬ 
phet on the first promulgation of Islamism, when 
the alternative offered to idolaters was death or 
conversion ; and when the Caliph Omar prohi¬ 
bited the conquered Christians of Jerusalem from 
riding on saddles, ringing bells, or appearing 
abroad, except in a particular habit; nor is it 
improbable that the Ameers are stimulated by an 
enthusiastic ardour to imitate so sacred an ex¬ 
ample as that of the Commander of the Faithful. 

Of their summary mode of administering jus¬ 
tice towards Hindoos, I had myself an opportunity 

of judging. A Banian merchant came to my re- 

3 


COURT OF SINDI 


85 


sidence one day with several articles of cloth, &c. 
for sale ; and, after leaving the garden, returned 
in the course.of an hour, complaining that he had 
been robbed of a valuable piece of silk by one of 
the Sipahis of my guard. I naturally felt indig¬ 
nant at the supposed misconduct of the Sipahi, as 
tending to degrade both myself and the character 
of the native army in the eyes of foreigners, and 
immediately entered into a careful investigation 
of the circumstance. The Hindoo could produce 
no evidence, while the innocence of the accused 
was attested by numerous witnesses. I had made 
up my mind as to the falsehood of the charge, 
when I was privately apprised that the Banian 
was acting by the advice of my friend Gopaldass, 
the vakeel, who had pointed out to him the pro¬ 
bability of my at once paying the value rather 
than allow the imputation of theft to rest where 
it was laid. I dismissed the business, therefore, 
telling the parties that, should I hear more on the 
subject, I would bring it at once to the notice of 
the Ameers. 

The Hindoo appearing on the following day 
with the same story, I, accordingly, in the after¬ 
noon, informed their Highnesses of the dispute; 
adding, that the accusation was against one of a 
body, the meanest soldier of which had a charac¬ 
ter indispensably necessary to his remaining an 
hour in the service, that they were the men who 
fought the battles of the state, and that it was in- 


86 


VISIT TO THE 


cumbent on me to protect their reputation: and 
I requested that an inquiry might be instituted, 
promising, in the event of there being any proof 
against the Sipahi, that he should be sent to Bhooj, 
where he would meet with the severest punish¬ 
ment. The Ameers heard me with great polite¬ 
ness ; expressed their regret at the circumstance ; 
and begged to know who the person was that had 
given me so much annoyance. I replied, a Hindoo. 
The name acted like a charm : Mourad Ali stop¬ 
ped me at once by pronouncing any investigation 
perfectly unnecessary, and forthwith issued his 
commands that the offender should be confined 
and admitted into the bosom of the faith ; an or¬ 
der which I observed several persons run with 
alacrity to perform. On my remonstrating against 
this extremity, his Highness replied with a savage 
grin, “ You do not know the Hindoos of Sinde ; 
they are all blackguards and rascals.” The catas¬ 
trophe in this case, however, was luckily prevent¬ 
ed ; and I am happy to add, that I had influence 
enough with Wullee Mahommed to obtain the re¬ 
lease of the culprit unknown to the Ameers. 

The bigotry which leads to these cruel excesses, 
betrays itself also in an unbounded and supersti¬ 
tious respect for the Seyuds, or descendants of the 
Prophet. The religious awe evinced by the Hin¬ 
doo for his Brahmin priest is not more profound or 
abject than the veneration in which this tribe is held 
in Sinde. The meanest wretch, who can boast 


87 


COURT OF SINDE. 

his origin from the holy stock, enjoys a place in 
society higher than temporal rank can bestow. 
Among the crowds who came to me for medicine 
all readily gave place to a Seyud ; and the only 
persons I ever saw admitted to any degree of in¬ 
timacy with the Ameers were of that privileged 
class. No person under any provocation would 
dare to abuse or strike one, unless at the risk of 
being torn to pieces by the populace; and in con¬ 
sequence of the privileges and immunities they 
enjoy, they flock from all the neighbouring coun¬ 
tries into Sinde, where, besides being the most in¬ 
solent, useless, and lazy members of the commu¬ 
nity, they exercise a most baneful influence on the 
minds, and are a constant tax on the purses, of 
the deluded inhabitants. Fuqueers, or religious 
mendicants, infest the public highways at Hyde¬ 
rabad ; demanding alms in a tone of overbearing 
insolence, indicative of the power they possess, 
and affording a melancholy evidence of the moral 
degradation of the people. 

The evils of intolerance I have mentioned, are 
so glaring that it is scarcely possible for a stran¬ 
ger to be a week in the country without their 
being obtruded on his notice. The Hindoo vakeel 
who accompanied me, was the butt of every spe¬ 
cies of ribaldry and wit that could enter the ima¬ 
ginations of my conductors, or their followers, on 
the march ; and amongst the many who secretly 
pray for such a consummation, none seemed to 


88 


VISIT TO THE 


have a more devout wish to see the British co¬ 
lours flying on the bastions of Hyderabad, than 
the Hindoos of respectability ; who, uninvited, 
entered on the subject of their, grievances, and 
discoursed largely of the cruelties and indignities 
to which they were subjected. 

The Ameers of Sinde are less sunk in sensuality 
and indulgence than Mahommedan princes in gene¬ 
ral. They seem to be men of too proud and ambi¬ 
tious a turn of character to be much influenced by 
the allurements of pleasure, or it is more probable 
that these have already palled upon their taste. 
Mourad Ali asked me, on one occasion, whether 
I had any objection to his taking daroo , a word 
which I understood in its usual acceptation of ar¬ 
dent spirits ; and I was proceeding to explain that 
it would be better to avoid all stimulants, and par¬ 
ticularly wine, for the present, when he abruptly 
interrupted me by begging that I would not use 
the name of the forbidden juice of the grape in 
the presence of a true believer. I found after¬ 
wards that his Highness only meant a pomegra¬ 
nate ; and although this anecdote may give an im¬ 
pression of display before a large assembly, still I 
believe it is well ascertained that the Ameers never 
indulge in intoxicating drugs or liquors. They 
have been known to dismiss persons with dis¬ 
grace from their presence, who have appeared 
before them redolent of wine ; and Bahadoor Khan 
Cokur, a Beloche chief of high birth in the service 


COURT OF SINDE. 


89 


ot Mourad Ali, was suspended from his employ¬ 
ments for a considerable time, from having been 
once seen in a state of intoxication. The Ameers 
universally objected to take medicine in the shape 
of tinctures from the spirits they contained. There 
is not a hookah to be seen at their court, nor do 
any of the family ever eat opium. It were to be 
hoped, that this temperance on the part of the rulers 
had had a proportionate effect on their subjects; 
but experience obliges me to declare, that most of 
the soldiery, and many of the courtiers, are ad¬ 
dicted to every species of indulgence that can either 
enervate the mind, or debilitate the body. The 
eating of opium is as common in Sinde as in Cutch ; 
and I found no present more acceptable than a few 
bottles of brandy, and no annoyance more intole¬ 
rable than incessant indirect applications to repair 
the ravages of unlawful disease, or to renew the 
powers wasted in luxury and debauch. 

The Ameers commence business about two 
hours before day-break, when each holds a private 
levee to listen to complaints, and adjust the affairs 
relative to his peculiar province. It is on this 
occasion only that they wear turbans. About 
sunrise they repair to their apartments to dress, 
and appear shortly afterwards in durbar, where 
the whole family regularly assemble, and where 
all state proceedings are transacted. The letters 
which have arrived during the night or preceding 
day, are then thrown before them in a heap, and 


90 


VISIT TO THE 


the time is passed in reading or giving orders re¬ 
garding them, and in conversation, till ten or eleven 
o’clock, when they withdraw to their morning 
repast. At two o’clock they again show them¬ 
selves abroad, and remain together till dark, when 
they separate for the night to their respective places 
of abode. My visits were always during the public 
durbars; nor had I, on any occasion, an opportu¬ 
nity of conversing privately with any one of the 
principal chiefs. On retiring to their residences 
the younger princes held separate courts of their 
own, where every thing formed a contrast to the 
stately ceremonial of the elder Ameers. There all 
restraint was thrown aside ; and we visited the 
stables, saw boar-baiting, fencing, ball practice, 
wrestling, and many other species of amusement. 

During the lifetime of Meer Futteh Ali, and 
while the convulsions by which the family gained 
the supreme power were recent, extraordinary pre¬ 
cautions were taken to prevent treachery or com¬ 
binations against themselves. The four brothers 
used to eat together, and sleep in one chamber, 
which was lighted only at the door way, while 
numbers of saddled horses and attendants were kept 
ready for any emergency. The continued tranquil¬ 
lity of Sinde for the last thirty years has at length 
lulled its rulers into confidence ; but their vigi¬ 
lance is still such as in a great measure to bid de¬ 
fiance to conspiracy. They do not now, as for¬ 
merly, dine and repose in the same room ; but they 


COURT OF SINDE. 


91 


all pass tlie night in halls outside of their apart¬ 
ments, with their arms by their sides, and watched 
by trusty retainers. 

Their distrust of each other is one of the most 
singular features in their character. I have al¬ 
ready mentioned, that Mourad Ali’s illness had 
confined them all within the fortress of Hydera¬ 
bad for many months ; and when they proceed 
on their hunting excursions, they are too cautious 
to leave any one of their number behind. It was 
merely by lingering a few miles in rear of the 
rest that Meet* Sobdar found means to escape to 
Islamkote and there raise his rebellion. Power un¬ 
der such a system of suspicion and alarm is scarcely 
to be envied ; and I gave Mourad Ali credit for 
the justice of a sentiment he once feelingly ex¬ 
pressed to me, and which he had copied, no doubt, 
from some Persian author,—that there is a heavy 
load, like lead, on the head of princes, the full 
misery of which none but princes can appreciate ; 
a fair confession, that his was any thing but a 
bed of roses. 

In their manners at the durbar, the Ameers 
were courteous, but for the most part haughty 
and reserved ; nothing approaching to familiarity 
appeared to exist between them and their most fa¬ 
voured servants. When a chair was brought in for 
me, two couches were at the same time introduced, 
one of which was occupied by the principal chiefs, 
and the other by the young princes. All the 


92 


VISIT TO THE 


courtiers and attendants sat at a respectful distance 
on the floor, or stood outside ; and I never,' on 
any occasion, except once or twice when Meer 
Ismael Shah and some favourite peerzadas or 
saints were allowed the honour, observed even 
their highest officers permitted to sit on the same 
elevation with themselves. The Ameers gene¬ 
rally came into their levee together, and left it at 
the same moment. During my stay at Hydera¬ 
bad, all the durbars were held in Mourad Ali’s 
apartments, on account of his illness ; but it is 
customary for them to meet alternately at each 
others’ residences. 

I have already, in describing my first interview, 
alluded to their dresses, and the general style of 
their court. With the exception of the Cashmere 
shawls, and the loongies or sashes of silk and gold, 
which I formerly mentioned, and which are made 
at Tatta, the cloths worn were generally of Eng¬ 
lish manufacture. As the cold season advanced, 
and they were obliged to lay aside the muslin tu¬ 
nics, their Highnesses used to appear in robes or 
cloaks made of the most valuable description of 
Cashmere shawls, gorgeously embroidered with 
gold lace, and lined with the black fur of Canda- 
har. On other occasions, their apparel consisted 
of European damask silk, or satin lined with 
some warmer material, and quilted with cotton, 
so as to be nearly impenetrable to a sword or a 
dagger. One of the best-dressed men at their 


COURT OF SINDE. 


93 


court, their uncle, Meer Mahmood, a particularly 
handsome old man, wore a surcoat of flowered 
pink satin. Meers Kurm Ali and Nusseer Khan 
were differently attired almost every morning, 
and I have often recognized a favourite servant 
clothed in the habiliments they had worn a few 
days previously. 

But of all the things which are calculated to en¬ 
gage the attention of a stranger on visiting the 
court of Sinde, none will excite his surprise more, 
or is really more worthy of observation, than the 
brilliant collection of jewels and armour in pos¬ 
session of the Ameers. A great part of their 
immense treasure consists in rubies, diamonds, 
pearls, and emeralds, with which their daggers, 
swords, and matchlocks are adorned, and many of 
which they wear as rings and clasps on different 
parts of their dresses. * The fall of the Cabul 
monarchy has reduced to indigence and ruin most 
of the princes and nobility of that kingdom, and 
has forced them to part with ornaments of great 
value, many of which have been bought up, at 
low prices, by persons sent by the Ameers to take 
advantage of their necessities. Merchants, with 
precious stones, are encouraged to visit Sinde from 

* The Ameers have still in their possession the emerald 
alluded to by Colonel Pottinger, larger than a pigeon's egg ; 
but what is that compared to the one mentioned in the des¬ 
cription of the famous peacock throne, which was cut in the 
shape of a parroquet, as large as life ? 



94 


VISIT TO THE 


all parts of Asia, in consequence of the ready market 
they meet with at the capital for their valuables ; 
and one or two Persian goldsmiths are engaged at 
court, where they work in enamel, and contrive 
expedients to display the jewellery of their mas¬ 
ters to advantage. The art of enlaying letters of 
gold on steel has also been brought to the great¬ 
est perfection by these artisans. 

The Ameers have agents in Persia, Turkey, and 
Palestine, for the purchase of swords and gun-bar¬ 
rels, and they possess a more valuable collection 
of these articles than is probably to be met with 
in any other part of the world. I have had in 
my hand a plain unornamented blade which had 
cost them half a lac of rupees. They estimate 
swords by their age and the fineness of the steel, 
as shown by the johar and aivb , or temper and wa¬ 
tering. One, which Kurin Ali presented to me, 
bears the Maliommedan date 1122, (A. D. 1708,) 
and was valued in Sinde at two thousand rupees. 
The armoury of their Highnesses is graced with 
swords which have been worn by almost every 
prince renowned in Asiatic story ; and I have 
had the honour of trying the balance of weapons 
which had been wielded by Shah Abbas the Great, 
Nadir Shah, Ahmed Shah Doranee, the present king 
of Persia, and many other equally illustrious per¬ 
sonages. The blades are embellished with in¬ 
scriptions in gold, which, in the case of those 
belonging to members of the family who are 
Sheahs, usually consist of short prayers to Huz- 


COURT OF SINDE. 


95 


rut Ali for aid and protection, and in that of the 
others, of verses from the Koran or appropriate 
quotations from Persian authors. On all belong¬ 
ing to Kurm Ali I observed the words Ihinduh 
Ali Mahommed, “ the slave of the descendants of 
Mahommed Kurm Aliand on that he gave me, 
besides a couplet from the Shah Nameh, there was 
one of his own composition, together with a stanza 
from the pen of Wullee Mahommed. Meer 
Nusseer Khan presented me with one on which 
were inscribed six lines written by himself for 
the occasion, and where my own name is intro¬ 
duced. 

The swords do not appear heavier than our com¬ 
mon English sabres, but they are differently balan¬ 
ced, and 1 have seen one of the young princes with 
a single stroke cut a large sheep in two pieces ; a 
feat which somewhat reminded me of that told of 

the famous Saladdin in Sir Walter Scott’s “ Tales 

? 

of the Crusaders.” There is a certain mode of 

i 

striking with them, which requires great practice 
and dexterity, as one of Meer Ismail Shah’s sons 
broke a very valuable blade in a similar experi¬ 
ment a short time before I went to Hyderabad. 
Our English cutlery, which is so generally es¬ 
teemed throughout Europe, has little value in the 
estimation of the Ameers. They had never 
heard of a sword from Great Britain of any price ; 
and I raised their curiosity to the utmost by in¬ 
forming them that his Majesty had lately present- 


96 


VISIT TO THE 


ed one of his great lords (the Duke of Northum¬ 
berland,) with one worth a lac of rupees. 

They seemed to be fully sensible, however, of 
the superiority of our gun-locks, a number of 
which they entreated me to beg the government 
to procure for them. I saw several expensive 
and highly finished fire-arms which had been pre¬ 
sented to them, from time to time, by our autho¬ 
rities in Inda, thrown aside as useless, without 
their locks, which had been removed to be put on 
their own fowling pieces. For the shape and ap¬ 
pearance of the latter I must again refer to the 
frontispiece to Pottinger’s Travels. Those be¬ 
longing to the Ameers resemble the two there de¬ 
lineated, with the addition of being highly orna¬ 
mented. The barrels, which are all rifled, are 
chiefly brought from Constantinople ; they are 
about double the length of ours, and of a very small 
calibre. The Sindians never use small shot, and 
they place no value on pistols or detonating locks. 
When they observed that their jewels and armour 
excited my admiration, some of them made a 
point of appearing differently decorated every 
day, and always handed me their swords for ex¬ 
amination. 

The histories attached to these, many of which 

\ 

had passed through generations of kings, together 
with local subjects, formed the chief part of our 
conversation, though it often took a more interest¬ 
ing turn. It would be impossible for me to fol- 


COURT OF SINDE. 


97 


low the Ameers in all their ideas and opinions as 
developed by their discourse; but I shall endea¬ 
vour, as far as my memory serves me, to recount a 
few particulars. They were evidently unwilling 
at first to say any thing regarding India; but 
when they found that I had no objection to gra¬ 
tify their curiosity they became extremely inqui¬ 
sitive. The revenues of our empire seemed espe¬ 
cially to claim their attention; and many were 
the attempts made to ascertain from me the exact 
amount paid by the Ijcirculars , or Farmers of Hin- 
dostan, as they designated the Honourable Com¬ 
pany, to the king of Great Britain, for their lease 
of the country. My explanation on this subject 
proved far from satisfactory. When I stated my 
belief that there was little or no surplus revenue 
either to the king or company, and that the ex¬ 
penditure of some of the governments was greater 
than the receipts, Kurm Ali exclaimed with as¬ 
tonishment, “ How is that possible ? Your power 
extends over five mighty kingdoms.” I replied, 
that it was true, the territory was immense, but 
that our system was different from that of the 
Mahommedans and Mahrattas, who lived oidy for 
themselves and their own generation ; that we 
were making laws for future ages, and although 
we personally did not profit, still our children arid 
the posterity of the ryots would know the advan¬ 
tage of our policy. In the justice of this they 
seemed ready to acquiesce, for they remarked that 


G 


98 


VISIT TO THE 


it was by our intellectual superiority alone we 
held India. 

On the subject of Bhurtpore they asked several 
questions, and amongst others the cause of our 
having taken it. I answered that the Rajah had 
brought his misfortunes entirely on himself by an 
insolent and overbearing conduct, which it was 
impossible for a great government to submit to 
from any state ; and that the proud fortress once 
called Bhurtpore, was now levelled with the dust. 
To this observation, which might have conjured 
up some uneasy anticipations in their own minds, 
they rejoined, that every kingdom we had conquer¬ 
ed was divided in itself, and that no instance had 
yet occurred of our having had to contend with 
one where prince and subjects were united in a 
common cause. The Ameers, no doubt, indulged 
the illusion, that their’s was the happy principality 
which would, with one accord, resist a hostile in¬ 
vader ; but I referred them to the history of all 
the conquests of Hindoostan whether the courtiers 
had not invariably deserted their sovereign when 
he was likely to be unfortunate.*' To the Bur- 

* “ But what contributed most to weigh down the scale of 
conquest was the degeneracy of the Patans, effeminated by 
luxury, and dead to all principles of virtue and honour, which 
their corrupt factions and civil discord had wholly effaced ; 
it being now no shame to fly, no infamy to betray, no breach 
of honour to murder, and no scandal to change parties.”— 
Ferishta. 




99 


COURT OF SINDE. 

mese war they also once alluded, and remarked 
that many of our troops had perished in that 
struggle ; to which I replied, that it had been by 
the climate, and added, what they either did not 
know, or were unwilling to allow, that the peace 
had been brought about by the cession of large 
tracts of country, and a considerable payment in 
money. 

But no topic was so interesting to the Ameers 
as that of Cutch ; to which they repeatedly refer¬ 
red, and respecting which they made the most 
minute inquiries. They all spoke of it as a pro¬ 
vince which would make the best hunting-forest 
in the world, and requested me frequently to de¬ 
scribe the mode of sport, and particularly hog¬ 
hunting, followed by English gentlemen in that 
country. Their admiration was at its height when 
I informed them that in a single district above six¬ 
ty wild hogs had been killed by a small party of offi¬ 
cers in the course of a month. One day they ob¬ 
served, that, as the government probably required 
at other stations the troops composing the Bhooj 
brigade, they would garrison Cutch for us with five 
or six thousand Beloches, as a token of friendship ; 
a proposal which, I believe, would have been com¬ 
municated in a letter through me, had I not evin¬ 
ced marked indifference concerning it. 

They often descanted on the disadvantages we 
had suffered by taking such a wretched country 
into our hands, which cost us more than it pro- 


100 


VISIT TO THE 


tluced ; and they told me once, that, if government 
would transfer the sovereignty of it to them, they 
would provide the security of the richest merchants 
for the regular payment of a tribute equal to the 
present subsidy. I had the curiosity to inquire 
how they would profit by such an arrangement, 
even if it were practicable, and found it to be their 
opinion that the revenues were embezzled by the 
ministers of the Rao. On my assuring them that 
there was really very little wealth in Cutch, Mou- 
rad Ali intimated, that he could find means to ex¬ 
tract some. As they appeared so interested, I 
entered into an explanation with them to show the 
respect we had for treaties, which, whether inju¬ 
rious or not, we were bound by honour to main¬ 
tain ; and surprised them, perhaps, by adding, 
that we would waste our blood and treasure as 
readily in the defence of Cutch, as of the richest 
and most productive of our dominions. 

Regarding the war between Russia and Persia, 
and even the capture of Tabreez, intelligence of 
which arrived when I was at Hyderabad, they 
expressed no concern. The Sikh, as they termed 
Runjeet Sing, they generally spoke of disrespect¬ 
fully, and once mentioned to me, in an indignant 
manner, that he would not allow one of the faith¬ 
ful to approach within several feet of him. With 
respect to the affairs of the Punjab, Mourad Ali 
asked me whether our government did not supply 
money to Seyud Ahmed Shah, who is now carry- 

* 

P> \ 

) i 

o ' • 


COURT OF SINDE. 


101 


ing on theMahominedan crusade against the Sikhs: 

-w- 

1 expressed iny wonder that any person could form 
such an idea, since it was notorious that the Seyud 
was fighting solely for the faith ; but my answer 
did not seem to convince them, as they remarked, 
that though the Bombay government, whose ser¬ 
vant I was, knew nothing of the matter, it was 
probably very well understood at Bengal. 

Of His Majesty and the royal family, and 
many other circumstances.connected with England, 
they spoke with a knowledge which surprised me, 
and once observed, that English sailors and Be- 
loche soldiers were the best in the world. They 
knew the character and fall of the Emperor Na¬ 
poleon, but were ignorant of his death. Of vac¬ 
cine inoculation they had heard by report; and 
when I explained its advantages, they declared 
their intention of establishing it in Sinde, and 
requested me to assist them with the means of 
doing so. Among other subjects I told them of 
the grand discovery of steam-engines ; but in this, 
and respecting the revenues of Great Britain, they 
evidently considered I was making use of a tra¬ 
veller’s privilege. They were obviously much- 
gratified to find I had a knowledge of the history 
of their family, of which they are exceedingly 
proud ; and on my being shown the sword of their 
ancestor, Meer Bejur, whose murder occasioned 
the overthrow of the Calora dynasty, they were 
equally astonished and pleased to hear me mention 


102 


VISIT TO THE 


the circumstance of his pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
the treachery which caused his death. 

One thing alone raised a frown on the counte¬ 
nances of the Ameers. In conversing one day 
with their minister, on the state of Cabul, I had 
occasion to refer in his presence to a large map of 
Hindoostan, and he mentioned the circumstance 
to their Highnesses, who begged to see so great 
a curiosity. I accordingly took it to the durbar, 
and explained its nature to them. Nothing could 
exceed their wonder when I traced from stage to 
stage, with my finger, the various routes through 
Sinde, together with those to Jessulmere and 
Lahore ; and stated that I could travel throughout 
the whole of their dominions, by the assistance 
of the map, without asking the way to a single 
village. It was probably injudicious, but I could 
not at the time resist the impulse, of covering the 
whole of their paltry territory with my hand, and 
pointing out to them the boundaries of our great 
and glorious empire in India. They affected per¬ 
fect indifference at first, and pretended that they 
knew as much of our provinces as we did of their’s ; 
but they were extremely grave during the remain¬ 
der of the interview, and I understood afterwards, 
from some persons who remained behind me at 
the levee, that they again reverted to the subject 
of the map, without concealing their chagrin and 
vexation that the Feringees knew every thing. 

In the preceding paragraphs I have endeavour- 


COURT OF SINDE. 


103 


ed to give some idea of the manners and habits of 
the Ameers of Sinde, while they are resident at 
their capital. Once or twice a month, when they 
are all in good health, they pay visits to their dif¬ 
ferent shikargahs, or preserves for game; and as 
they are attended, on these occasions, by large re¬ 
tinues, and never previously announce in which 
direction they mean to travel, they thus combine, 
with a passion for the cliace, a species of policy 
which enables them to keep their several districts 
in awe. They take the field with hawks, dogs, 
&c., but their mode of killing game would have 
little charms for an European sportsman. They 
never expose themselves to the sun, but remain 
comfortably seated in a house till the deer or hog 
is forced to come before them to a small tank or 
well to drink, when they shoot him deliberately, 
and receive the acclamations of their followers. 

The shikargahs are large tracts of jungle so 
carefully inclosed as to prevent the egress of all 
quadrupeds ; and when their Highnesses proceed 
to them, all the wells, except the one in front of 
their tents or bungalows, are closed up, and the 
game is hunted till dire necessity obliges it to 
seek for water, at the risk of life, in the manner 
above alluded to. Sometimes they station them- 
selves in temporary buildings, between two shi¬ 
kargahs nearly adjoining, in one of which several 
hundred, matchlockmen are posted to expel the 
frightened animal, which, in endeavouring to es- 


104 


VISIT TO THE 


cape through a passage made for the purpose into 
the neighbouring preserve, is intercepted and killed 
by the Ameers. 

They never hunt on horseback, but sometimes, 
though rarely, go out a deer shooting on camels; 
none, except themselves, are permitted to fire at 
any game ; and there is scarcely a sporting ex¬ 
cursion which does not cost them the lives of two 
or three of their subjects, either from false aim¬ 
ing on their own part, or the fury of boars, &c. 
driven desperate. All the grandees in Sinde, 
when they appear in public, are attended by their 
bazbans or falconers, with hawks, some of which 
are of great value. I saw a bird which had cost 
Kurm Ali two thousand rupees ; and his High¬ 
ness presented me with one of a scarcely inferior 
price. The best are, I understand, brought from 
Turkistan, and the northern parts of Cabul. 

In Sinde, as in all oriental countries, the cour¬ 
tiers exist only in the presence and favour of the 
prince, and depend entirely on the Ameers for 
their rank and situation in society. Of them it 
is unnecessary to say much. They do not carry 
with them to their own houses that neatness of 
dx •ess and respectability of deportment, which are 
exacted from them at the durbar ; and as they are 
generally extremely poor, (the whole wealth of 
the country being in the hands of the rulers,) 
they have no means of making display. The fa¬ 
vourites of the Ameers may be distinguished by 


COURT OF S1NDE. 


105 


gold-mounted swords, which are the highest ho¬ 
norary distinctions conferred by the Hyderabad 
durbar. It is contrary to the usage of the court 
to wear side arms ornamented with any of the 
precious metals not presented by their high¬ 
nesses ; and as they are rather sparing in their 
favours, the honour is much appreciated. For 
very high services, the Ameers sometimes, though 
rarely, give one of their valuable blades adorned 
with diamonds. 

It would be in vain to expect independence of 
feeling where all are really so dependent. The 
Sinde courtiers can only retain their places by 
implicit obedience, and the most fawning adula¬ 
tion to their superiors. Their propensity to flat¬ 
ter strangers, and even each other, is ludicrous 
to an European. Scarcely two persons of the 
higher rank ever met together in my presence 
without bespattering each other with the most 
fulsome compliments, and both joining in exalt¬ 
ing me to the skies, by the most far-fetched and 
hyperbolic praises. Their ceremonious formality 
is truly distressing. The same inquiries after 
my happiness, health, &c. were seldom repeated 
less than four or five times in the course of a 
visit. The moment I rose from my chair every 
man of the company did the same, and continued 
standing till I again sat down, when, after an ex¬ 
change of salutations between all present, they 
followed my example. In this respect, they are, 


106 


VISIT TO THE 


I presume, mere copyists of the courts of Cabul 
and Persia. 

From what I have said of the character of 
Meer Mourad Ali, it will be obvious that he is 
not a prince much guided by the counsels of 
others ; nor is it easy, with a man of his cold and 
unsociable disposition, to ascertain on whom he 
really bestows his favour. None know the work¬ 
ings of his gloomy soul, and scarcely any can 
claim a share in his confidence ; but there are, 
nevertheless, two individuals who, from various 
causes, are of great importance at the court of 
Sinde, and who demand particular mention in 
this narrative. I allude to Wullee Mahommed 
Khan, and Seyud Ismail Shah, the chief ministers 
of the Ameers, of whose characters I shall attempt 
to give a brief outline. They both receive high 
salaries from government, and have palanquins 
and bearers maintained for them; an honour 
which they share unrivalled by any other subject 
in the country. 

The Nuwab, WulJe Mahommed Khan Lagha- 
ree, is by the Ameers themselves termed the vi¬ 
zier of Sinde, and, next to the principal members 
of the Talpoor family, must be considered the 
most important personage under their govern¬ 
ment. Being himself the head of a powerful Be- 
loche tribe, which contributed in the field to the 
elevation of the present rulers, he has ever since 
been their faithful and able servant, and seems 


107 


COURT OF SIMDE. 

to enjoy not only the entire confidence of his 
masters, but, what is rare indeed in a despotic 
government, the esteem and respect of the people. 
He is the adviser of the Ameers in the manage¬ 
ment of the internal affairs of the state ; and, by 
his adroitness and mild demeanour, has it often 
in his power, and seldom loses an opportunity, to 
avert or mitigate the effects of those shocks of 
tyranny and oppression which emanate from their 
durbar. 

A sincere regard for the interest of his masters 
has taught this old and respectable individual the 
necessity of maintaining a friendly intercourse 
with the British government ; and it is to his ad¬ 
vice I owe not only my visit to Sinde, but the 
wish of the Ameers to detain me. Wullee Ma- 
hommed Khan must have attained the age of 
seventy; and it is to be feared, therefore, that 
death may soon deprive the Ameers of their best 
servant, and the people of Sinde of their kindest 
protector. His son, Ahmed Khan, a dissipated 
young man about thirty years of age, possesses 
none of the virtues of his parent. The Nuwab is 
a poet of no mean excellence; and, although his 
verses are filled with adulation, it would be unfair 
to detract from his merits on this account, or to 
condemn him for following the example of almost 
every Persian writer. He has composed also se¬ 
veral large folios on the subject of medicine, 
gleaned chiefly from the dreams and theories of 


108 


VISIT TO THE 


the ancients, but which, being supposed original, 
have gained for him the character of a sage'in 
Sinde. Amongst his works I must not omit to 
mention a small book on the cure of diseases 
written in the name of Meer Mourad Ali, the 
merit of which is claimed by that prince. 

Meer Ismail Shah is the adviser of the govern¬ 
ment in its foreign, as the Nuwab Wullee Ma- 
hommed Khan is in its domestic policy. He is 
second only to the latter in the estimation of the 
Ameers, who, in addition to their religious reve¬ 
rence for him as a descendant of the Prophet, en¬ 
tertain an exaggerated idea of his judgment and 
experience. He is the son of a Persian who immi¬ 
grated about fifty years ago into Sinde, where he 
was attached to the last Caloras as a state-physi¬ 
cian, and afterwards siding with the Talpoors, re¬ 
ceived employment in their service. Ismail Shah 
is well known as the ambassador to Bombay in 
1820, when it was expected war would be de¬ 
clared between the governments. The hospitality 
he then experienced, and the munificence of Mr 
Elphinstone, formed the chief topics of his conver¬ 
sation with me ; but it is notorious that he is faith¬ 
less in the extreme, and not at all favourably in¬ 
clined to the British interest. Meer Ismail is a 
man of respectable appearance and good address, 
about fifty years of age, has the silly vanity to pre¬ 
tend ignorance of the common language of Sinde, 
and never speaks or allows himself to be addres- 


COURT OF S1NDE- 


109 


sed in any other language than Persian. He has 
been occasionally employed at the court of Cabul, 
where he informed me he was envoy at the period 
of Mr Elphinstone’s mission; and he is no doubt 
thoroughly skilled in the system of intrigue and 
chicanery, so requisite in an Asiatic cabinet. He 
has several sons holding important situations un¬ 
der the government, one of whom was lately at 
Bombay as vakeel, and another is the representa- 

s 

tive of the Ameers at Shikarpoor. He himself 
receives a monthly salary of eleven hundred ru¬ 
pees as physician, which is the best paid appoint¬ 
ment at Hyderabad, but his prescriptions are little 
attended to by the Ameers. 

A spirit of rivalry may naturally be supposed 
to exist between the two great officers of the Sinde 
durbar ; and this is not confined merely to attempts 
to supplant each other in the favour of their mas¬ 
ters, but extends to particulars which would ex¬ 
cite a smile among European politicians. They 
are envious of each other’s fame as men of science, 
and especially as physicians. Both are authors, 
and exceedingly vain of their own productions ; 
and, without deciding here on their respective me¬ 
rits, on which I always evaded giving an opinion 
to themselves, I may observe that the Ameers 
have shown a correct discrimination of character, 
in awarding to Ismail Shah the emolument, and 
to the Nuwab the reputation. In their moral 


110 


VISIT TO THE 


qualities they can bear no comparison. The 
Ameers repose implicit confidence in Wullee Ma¬ 
li ommed, but doubt, with justice, the integrity of 
his rival.* The former is upright and charitable, 
the latter proud and penurious ; the one esteemed, 
the other feared ; the Seyud owing his elevation 
and importance chiefly to birth and popular pre¬ 
judice, and the Khan to a long life of fidelity and 
virtue, which, it is some credit to Sinde to say, 
have met their reward. 

Next in importance to these officers are a few 
courtiers who exert a personal influence, from 
being constantly in private attendance on the 
Ameers, or as leaders of Beloche tribes. The first 
of this class worthy of notice is Mirza Klioosroo, 
a Georgian slave, who was purchased about eigh¬ 
teen years ago by Kurin Ali, and whom his mas¬ 
ter now treats as an adopted child. He is not a 
favourite of Mourad Ali, and possesses no political 
consequence, though he was envoy at Bombay in 
1823. He is a man of quiet retiring character, 
and is known in Sinde as the author of Persian 
verses, the merit of which he is willing to yield 
to Kurm Ali, who has considerable vanity as a poet. 


* In the letter of advice Mourad Ali had prepared for his 
children, alluded to in page 52, he cautioned them to beware 
of Ismail Shah, but urged them to follow implicitly the ad¬ 
vice of Wullee Mahomed. 


4 



COURT OF SINDE. 


Ill 


I requested his Highness one day to favour me with 
a couplet of his own composition to engrave on a 
sword, and I observed that he immediately called 
Mirza Khoosroo to him, and, after some whisper¬ 
ing, produced a verse as his own* 

Mirza Bakur is also a young Georgian on whom 
Mourad Ali seems to bestow favour. Bahadoor 
Khan Cokur, and Kheir Mahommed Tor a, are two 
noblemen supposed to be high in the estimation 
of that prince ; and his Highness pointed out the 
former to me as one of the bravest and most dis¬ 
tinguished of his followers. They are both chiefs 
of powerful Beloche tribes, always resident at 
court, where they enjoy situations of responsibility 
and emolument, and Kheir Mahommed is mohk- 
tarkar, or manager of Mourad Ali’s private affairs. 

Ghoolarn Ulla Laghree, the brother of the 
Nuwab, has charge of the important fortress of 
Omerkote,f where it is reported the members of 

* The couplet in question is as follows:—I am sharper 
than wisdom from the mouth of Plato; I am more blood- 
spilling than the eyebrow of a beautiful mistress.” 

t My brother has the following remark regarding Omer- 
kote:—“ I may here mention, that I heard this far-famed 
oasis of the desert, the retreat of the Emperor Humaioon, 
the birth-place of the great Akbar, the source of contention 
between Sinde and Joodpoor, and in later times, the deposi¬ 
tory of the riches and jewels of the Ameers of Sinde, is a 
small brick built fort, the southern face of which was actual¬ 
ly thrown down by the late inundation, with walls much 
lower than Luckput, and without a ditch to protect it, though 





112 


VISIT TO THE 


the Sinde government have treasure to the amount 
of several crores of rupees. After obtaining his 
pre-eminence, Futteh Ali took the immediate pre¬ 
caution of seizing the immense riches of the Calo- 
ras; and as additions have been making to the heap 
ever since, the wealth in possession of the Ameers 
must now be enormous. Their plan of hording 
up money, which, as I have already stated, they 
consider their chief security, has hitherto been 
successful; but it is most probable that it will end 
like many schemes of the kind related in history, 
and be at length turned by some fortunate adven¬ 
turer against themselves or tlieir family ; “ an 
event,” as Hume says, “ which naturally attends 
the policy of amassing treasures.” 

MoonslieeKhoosheram is a Hindoo who receives 
one hundred rupees per month as chief secretary. 
He has no influence; but all public letters are writ¬ 
ten by him, and to him is to be partly attributed 
the ungracious style of some of these communica¬ 
tions; for I observed, that notes sent to me by order 
of the Ameers when he was absent, were much 
more courteously worded than those dictated by 
himself. However sparing their Highnesses may 
be of civility in their written communications to 
others, they are most particular in exacting it for 
themselves ; and, while on this subject, it may be 


so near a river.”—Lieutenant Burnes’s Memoir 
dus. 


of the In - 

ffi 


3 




COURT OF SINDE. 


113 


worth mentioning as a trait of their characters, 
that I was in the durbar when the letters from Sir 
John Malcolm and Mr Elphinstone, announcing 
the change of government at Bombay, were pre¬ 
sented to them by the native agent; every word 
in the titles and compliments was carefully weigh¬ 
ed and scrutinized, and I was much amused to 
observe Mourad Ali point out to his brother some 
expression which he imagined was less respectful 
in the one signed by Sir. John than in the other. 

It is foreign to my purpose to say much on the 
people of Sinde, far less to enter into a detail of 
their character and peculiarities, which have been 
described at great length by others.* No estimate 

* ‘ f The inhabitants of Sinde are a strong and healthy race 
of men, rather more fitted for fatigue than activity, and are 
mostly tall and dark complexioned. Those who enjoy ease 
and indulgence are uncommonly corpulent, which perhaps 
their great use of milk disposes all to be. The princes are 
remarkably broad and fat, and many of the Beloche chiefs 
and officers of their court, too large for the dimensions of any 
European chair. As rotundity is so much the distinction of 
greatness, it is admired as a beauty, and sought as an ambi¬ 
tion, and prescriptions, therefore, for increasing bulk are 
much esteemed. The Sindians in their tempers are proud, 
impatient, knavish, and mean. Placed between Muckran 
and llindoostan, they seem to have acquired the vices, both 
of the barbarity on the one side, and the civilization on the 
other, without the virtues of either. Their natural faculties 
are good, and their energies would reward encouragement, 
but their moral character is a compound scarcely to be de¬ 
scribed, and still less to be trusted, and fanaticism, supersti- 

H 



114 


VISIT TO THE 


can be formed of the population, which, if we may 
credit the information given to Captain Hamilton, 
was, about the beginning of last century, in the 
proportion of ten Hindoos to one Mussulman. In 
this case the knife of circumcision must have made 
havoc indeed, as the rival sects are now nearly 
equal, or rather, I believe, the Mahommedan is the 
more numerous. As the state religion of Sinde is 
taken from the Koran, so the system of jurispru¬ 
dence is derived from the same source, and when 
exercised between two subjects of the more favour¬ 
ed creed, would appear to be pretty fairly admi¬ 
nistered by the Cadi; but, as this functionary can 
listen to no complaints against the government, 
and holds his situation only by the sufferance of 

tion, and despotism are debasing it more and more every day. 
There is no zeal but for the propagation of the faith ; no spi¬ 
rit but in celebrating the Eed; no liberality but in feeding 
lazy Seyuds; and no taste but in ornamenting old tombs. 
Their active diversions are shooting and clapping with their 
swords, to prove their temper and the strength of their own 
arms. They are good marksmen with their matchlocks, and 
inimitably dexterous with the bow and a blunt heavy arrow, 
which they use for game, and dart in a transverse instead of 
a straight direction, so that the body, and not the point of 
the arrow, strikes the object. With these arrows they kill 
partridges flying, to. the right and left, as surely and expe¬ 
ditiously as an European sportsman with a double barrelled 
gun. All the princes are from great practice incredibly ex¬ 
pert both with their guns and bows. In riding, and the use 
of the sword, the Sindians have no skill, nor have they any 
exercise peculiar to themselves.”— Chow. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


115 


the Ameers, it will be evident that he can be no 
check on their Highnesses, though privileged by 
his code to be so. 

I have in another place given a specimen of the 
manner in which justice is dispensed to the Hin¬ 
doos, who for the most part prudently settle their 
differences among themselves by punchaets, or ar¬ 
bitration, without a reference to the ruling autho¬ 
rities. The Beloches seem generally to take the 
law into their own hands, and to act on the simple 
principle of retaliation ; nor do the Ameers often 
interfere with them, except where individual dis¬ 
putes extend to whole tribes, when they are obliged 
to settle matters by force or conciliation. A serious 
quarrel of this sort took place, from a most trifling 
cause, while I was at Hyderabad, and called for 
the mediation of their Highnesses, who sent for 
the contending parties to the durbar in my pre¬ 
sence, and with much flattery and address obtain¬ 
ed a promise from each to desist. 

In no respect were my expectations more disap¬ 
pointed than in the military force of Sinde. Hav¬ 
ing lived for some time in Cutch amid frequent 
rumours of attack and invasion, I had, in common 
with most others in that province, imbibed the 
idea that there was a powerful body of troops main¬ 
tained at Hyderabad. It is quite the contrary, 
however ; and, with the exception of a small corps 
of Beloches who are kept to garrison the fortress, 
the armed retainers of the Ameers are few in iium- 


116 


VISIT TO THE 


ber, and contemptible in appearance. Several of 
the chiefs of the tribes reside constantly at court, 
and are able to collect, in the course of a few days, 
by some means resembling the fiery cross used 
by our own forefathers, their various followers, 
who at other times are employed in agriculture, 
and other peaceful occupations. In this manner 
it is said the government can assemble about forty 
thousand men, to whom, while in active service, 
I find by Captain Seton’s Report that it allows a pice 
each per diem ; but I presume this must be either 
a mistake, or a regulation of former times, as I 
heard of horsemen being entertained at the re¬ 
spectable salaries of thirty rupees per mensem. A 
case might be supposed in which the whole Ma- 
hommedan population would rise en masse; but as 
patriotism is unknown in this quarter of the globe, 
nothing except a fiery zeal for religion, fanned into 
a flame by some designing enthusiast, is ever likely 
to produce such a result. 

Though the iron rod of the Ameers has repres¬ 
sed the daring spirit of the military classes of their 
subjects, and the general tranquillity of the pro¬ 
vince has left their energies to slumber for a while, 
they may yet be considered as a body of marau¬ 
ders ready to take arms for any cause which will 
afford them support, or which offers a prospect of 
plunder. Like hungry vultures they would almost 
seem to “ scent the battle from afar;” for the train 
of dissension is no sooner lighted, than war be- 

4 


COURT OF SINDE. 


117 


comes their universal cry, and it is incredible in 
how short a period they flock to their rendezvous. 
Sobdar’s late insurrection was settled in the course 
of a few days, but not until twenty or thirty thou¬ 
sand volunteers had joined the different standards, 
and numbers were crowding in hourly when the 
adjustment took place. In the field, the Sindian 
soldier has no discipline; and as his pay is gene¬ 
rally contemptible, and frequently uncertain, he 
conceives himself fully privileged to supply his 
wants at the expence of the villages on his march. 
He is acknowledged to be brave and hardy, but 
his reputation is far higher in his own country 
than any where else. His vanity and gasconading 
are proverbial: from the general down to his 
meanest follower in the camp, every man makes 
his own past and intended exploits, or those of 
his ancestors, the constant theme of his conversa¬ 
tion and contemplation ; and it is remarkable with 
what patience they listen to the empty vauntings 
of one another. The army of the Ameers, when 
collected, presents a motley and ill-accoutred as¬ 
semblage of mercenaries from all quarters ; and it 
is composed chiefly of adventurers who have de¬ 
scended from the mountains of Belochistan, to one 
of the tribes of which, that of Rind, the reigning 
house traces its origin. 

Horses are brought in great numbers annually 
from Cabul and Candahar to Cutch and Bombay, 
where they are bought by agents for the British 


118 


VISIT TO THE 


government; and as they all take the route through 
Sinde, and can be procured there at a very cheap 
rate, it might be imagined that the Beloche soldiers, 
who are generally cavalry, would be well mounted. 
There are no fine horses, however, to be seen, ex¬ 
cept in the stables of the Ameers ; who every year 
purchase some of the best from the dealers as they 
pass, and who, besides having excellent studs, all 
keep an immense number of dogs of good breed, 
which are also imported from the upper provinces. 
I saw several large, powerful-looking mules in 
Sinde, and, conceiving that it might be an object 
to government to get them for the use of the ar¬ 
tillery from that country, instead of from the more 
distant ports in the Persian Gulf, I made inqui¬ 
ries regarding them, but am afraid they could not 
be procured at a less expence, or more easily than 
by the arrangement which at present exists. 

The Ameers are, I believe, perfectly aware of 
the utter hopelessness of any defence they could 
make, in the event of an invasion by our go¬ 
vernment. Many circumstances proved to me 
that 44 the magic of our name linked with success,” 
and the feeling not to be wondered at, which per¬ 
vades the eastern world, generally, of its being 
44 the will of God,” that, till a certain period, we 
shall prove victorious in all our enterprizes, have 
not failed to exert their superstitious influence on 
the anxious and foreboding minds of the natives. 
In their attempts to conceal their terror they adopt 


COURT OF SINDE. 


119 


means which inevitably lead to a detection of it; such 
as the vaunting and imperious style of their letters 
to foreign powers, and their endeavours to impress 
strangers with an exaggerated estimation of their 
dignity and importance. Like many men in pri¬ 
vate life, who contrive for a time to cloak their 
ignorance under a formal manner and distant de¬ 
portment, they well know that a closer inspection 
would infallibly expose their weaknesses; andhence 

arises their jealousy of our acquiring a nearer or 

•• 

more intimate knowledge of their country or of 
themselves. 

Such flimsy pretences could never blind any in¬ 
dividual who has visited Sinde and witnessed the 
true state of affairs. Of the few walled towns in 
the province all are contemptible, and scarcely one 
deserves the name of a fortress. Omerkote, the 
repository of the wealth of the court, which has 
so long been supposed unassailable from the re¬ 
port of its being environed by a sandy desert of 
great extent where no water is procurable, has 
been ascertained, by late inquiries, to be within a 
few miles of a branch of the Indus, and utterly 
untenable. The city of Hyderabad is a collection 
of wretched low mud hovels, as destitute of the 
means of defence as they are of external elegance, 
or internal comfort; and even the boasted strong¬ 
hold of the Ameers, which surmounts their capi¬ 
tal, is but a paltry erection of ill burnt bricks, 
crumbling gradually to decay, and perfectly inca- 


120 


VISIT TO THE 


pable of withstanding for an hour the attack ot 
regular troops.* The nobility would, in all pro¬ 
bability, and, as is usual with Asiatics, desert their 
masters in the time of trouble ; and although I 
have no doubt the Talpoor chiefs would them¬ 
selves bravely perish in defence of their sovereign¬ 
ty and treasures, it is scarcely possible to con¬ 
ceive a more easy, or, as far as the people gene¬ 
rally are concerned, a more willing conquest, were 
our victorious arms turned in that direction, than 
Sinde would prove, unassisted by any of the coun¬ 
tries in the neighbourhood. 

Were such an event to happen, as happen in 
all probability it will, from causes as uncontrolla¬ 
ble as those which have led to the already mighty 

* “ The fortifications of Hyderabad consist of a high wall 
and a high citadel, upon which some very heavy guns are 
planted. The wall is thin, but supported inside by a great 
depth of earth, partly original and partly piled up, which 
would make a breach difficult. The citadel is entirely brick 
work, but very thick, and the figure perfectly circular, of not 
more than one hundred yards diameter. There is a dry ditch 
round one side of the fort, and low ground on the other. The 
circumference of the wall may be three quarters of a mile ; 
it has few embrasures, and no commanding angles, nor out¬ 
works. The figure of the fort “ comes nearest to an oblong 
square, but stands upon one side of the extremity of a long 
and narrow rocky hill, steep in its declivity every way. The 
country surrounding this rock is an island formed by the In¬ 
dus, about six or eight miles broad, and twenty or thirty 
long, well cultivated, and annually inundated by the periodi¬ 
cal swell.” —Crow. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


121 


extension of our empire, there is no district which 
would better repay the fostering care of a mild 
and enlightened management than Sinde. The 
people of that country and our government might 
mutually congratulate each other and themselves 
on the advantages they had gained ; and while the 
one was grateful for the introduction of free in¬ 
stitutions and a benignant rule, the other might 
glory in the acquisition of a valuable and produc¬ 
tive addition to its dominions. Agriculture and 
commerce, which are now languid from ignorance 
and taxation, would gradually revive and flourish 
under the new and better order of things; and the 
local advantages of the province, combined with secu¬ 
rity to property and impartial justice, would in¬ 
vite settlers from other countries, whose families 
would recruit the lost population, and whose ener¬ 
gies, unfettered by religious bigotry or military 
despotism, would have full scope, encouragement, 
and reward. Then the river Indus might once 
more become the channel of communication and 
of wealth, between the interior of Asia and the 
Peninsula of India; while Sinde herself, equally in¬ 
teresting to us from classic association, and from 
sympathy with her present sufferings, would rise re¬ 
newed to claim a due importance in the scale of 
nations, and to profit by the benefits which nature 
has bestowed upon her. 

By the beginning of January, Mourad Ali’s 
health had been perfectly re-established, but 


122 


VISIT TO THE 


still the Ameers showed no disposition whatever 
to consent to my leaving Hyderabad, and I ascer¬ 
tained, what I had previously suspected, that they 
wished to detain me altogether. Mourad Ali had 
once or twice asked me whether I had any objec¬ 
tion to remain with them ; and although J had al¬ 
ways evaded his questions by explaining that I 
was a servant of the government, without whose 
permission I could do nothing, he had often re¬ 
verted to the subject, and had requested my opi¬ 
nion whether Sir John Malcolm would agree to 
my returning, even should I leave Hyderabad for 
the present. Wullee Mahommed Khan now in¬ 
formed me that he had recommended the Ameers 
to make the proposal at once to government; and 
although they were evidently unwilling to gain 
their object in this manner, I was privately ap¬ 
prized that some circumstances had occurred which 
induced them to protract my departure as long as 
possible. 

About the end of December two vakeels arrived 
from Sbah Shuja Ool Moolk the exiled king of 
Cabul, and the pensioner of our government at 
Ludiana, loaded with presents to the Ameers, and 
making a demand that the district of Shikarpoor 
should be restored to his majesty, who proposed 
proceeding there in person to collect followers, 
with a view to regaining his lost empire. The 
king’s proposal was accompanied by a threat, pri¬ 
vately intimated through Ismail Shah, that, if 


COURT OF SINDE. 


123 


the Ameers did not immediately accede to his re¬ 
quest, it was his intention to transfer his un¬ 
doubted sovereignty over Sinde to his faithful al¬ 
lies the British, who he declared were preparing 
to assist him with troops and money in his ambi¬ 
tious enterprises. 

The whole message appeared to me from the 
first an empty bravado on the part of the fallen mo¬ 
narch; but the Ameers, although they had courage 
enough to reject at once the proposal, felt by no 
means easy at the appalling intimation which ac¬ 
companied it, and which conjured up, no doubt, 
to their recollection many a long arrear of subsidy 
unpaid, and much harsh conduct to the unfortu¬ 
nate house of Cabul to be accounted for. Their 
alarm * was heightened by another circumstance, 

* Tatta is described to have been a place of immense 
wealth and commerce when Nadir Shah visited Sinde in 
1747-8 ; but if we can believe the following extract from 
Tavernier’s Travels, written about a century before that time, 
it had even much fallen off in his days. I quote from an Ita¬ 
lian edition, the only copy I ever saw of the book, published 
at Bologna in 1690, and, strange to say, given to me by the 
Ameers of Sinde, whose servants had taken it from an un¬ 
fortunate native of Rome, who passed through Hyderabad in 
the beginning of 1827- The remark about the filling up of 
the river is also curious. It has no doubt changed its course 
often ; but I question whether it was ever more or less navi¬ 
gable than at the present moment. How unfortunate it is 
that no one has left an exact account of the distance of Tatta 
from the Indus in those days. It is now certainly above five 



124 


VISIT TO THE 


trifling in itself, but which in their jealous minds 
amounted to “ confirmation strong” of combina¬ 
tions against them. About the time the vakeels 
arrived from Ludiana, intelligence was also re¬ 
ceived from their agent at Bawulpoor, that an Eng¬ 
lish officer had arrived there, and had been treated 
by the Khan with great respect. It occurred at 
once to the Ameers that he had been sent to assist 
in Shah Shuja’s schemes ; but, as far as I could as¬ 
certain by the most particular inquiries, he was a 
traveller unconnected with government, who had 
probably taken that route from Bengal to Europe, 
and was thus innocently the cause of much ter¬ 
ror to the court of Sinde. 

Even in the bright days of the Afghaun mo¬ 
narchy, the respect and obedience which the rulers 
of Sinde paid to their lord paramount, were ex¬ 
ceedingly remiss ; and their annual tribute to his 
treasury was seldom yielded till a powerful army 
had advanced to extort it. It is not from charac¬ 
ters like the Ameers that we can expect reverence 
for fallen greatness ; and, accordingly, the few 
members of the royal family who, since the ruin 
of the Doranee dynasty, have sought refuge at 
their capital, have been treated with undisguised 


miles. “ At present the commerce of Tatta, which was for¬ 
merly great, is much diminished, as the mouth of the river is 
always getting worse, and the sand, by increasing, scarcely 
gives room for a passage .”—Viaggi di Giov. Battist. Taver¬ 
nier , Part 2. 




COURT OF SINDE. 1&5 

contempt. While I was there, a nephew of the 
king Tirnour Shah, passed through on his way to 
Bombay, to solicit a share in the charity which 
has been extended to so many of his ill-fated re¬ 
latives by the British government. He is the 
grandson of the great Ahmed Shah, but, like most 
of his house, is now a wanderer without a home. 
He was too proud to visit the durbar of the 
Ameers ; and they considered that they liad shown 
him hospitality enough by sending him seventy- 
five Bombay rupees. He had only two attendants, 
and found an asylum in a mosque like a common 
beggar. His distress and disappointment were 
evident when he learned that Mr Elphinstone had 
left India ; and he was so poor as to be obliged to 
ask me for assistance. I gave him a letter to 
Captain Walter, by whom he was liberally enter¬ 
tained at Bhooj. 

Shortly after leaving Cutch, I had been sum¬ 
moned as a witness to attend a general court-mar¬ 
tial at Surat, and it was now announced to me by 
letters from the prisoner, that the trial could not pro¬ 
ceed till I made my appearance. I therefore felt 
extremely perplexed how to act; for I was unwil¬ 
ling to relinquish an opportunity, which had so 
unexpectedly offered, of establishing a British in¬ 
fluence in Sinde, should it be considered an object; 
while to the wishes of the Ameers and their vizier 
I could hold out no encouragement, as I was igno¬ 
rant of the policy of government, and dreaded the 


12G 


VISIT TO THE 


responsibility of subjecting it to the necessity of 
an ungracious refusal, were a letter despatched to 
Bombay at my suggestion. I lost no time, however, 
in referring the matter by an express messenger to 
Cutch; but, as the resident was absent, I could 
obtain no definitive orders without waiting for a 
considerable interval. It was necessary, without 
delay, to adopt some course which would meet both 
emergencies; and I accordingly resolved to pro¬ 
pose to the Ameers to leave them for the present, 
and to return after I had appeared before the 
court-martial; and, in the meantime also, to as¬ 
certain the commands of the Honourable the Go¬ 
vernor in Council. 

The Ameers met my communication by inform¬ 
ing me, that they were making preparations for a 
visit to Sehwaun, to which they were going in a 
body, to return thanks at the shrine of a famous 
saint for the recovery of Mourad Ali’s health, and 
where it was their wish that I should accompany 
them. I was truly sorry to forego so favourable 
an opportunity of seeing the country, but I felt it 
my duty to press the absolute necessity of my de¬ 
parture; and, although they were extremely averse, 
they at last consented, under an agreement that I 
would meet them again on their return to Hyde¬ 
rabad in the course of a month or six weeks. * I 
considered that my object was now gained ; but I s 
had to appear no less than six or eight days suc¬ 
cessively, to take my leave ; and their Highnesses 


127 


COURT OF SINDE. 

still insisted on my deferring my departure for 
another day. At length, when it could no longer 
be delayed, they paid me the compliment of asking 
by which route I should like to return; and as I 
at once decided on going down the Indus, one of 
their state barges was got in readiness for me, 
and their cousin Meer Ghoolam Shah, the grand¬ 
son of Bejur Khan, mentioned in a preceding 
part of this Narrative, was ordered, as a great 
mark of respect, to accompany me to the place of 
embarkation. 

On the morning of the 2 1st of January, I paid 
my last visit at the durbar of the Ameers, and the 
adieus on both sides were, I believe, not unming¬ 
led with regret. Their Highnesses expressed them¬ 
selves more than ever thankful; and I had an op¬ 
portunity of reiterating my acknowledgments for 
the continued hospitality and respect I had expe- 

4 , 

rienced in Sinde. I was accompanied to the river 
side, a distance of about five miles, by several of 
their chief officers, and amongst these, by my old 
friend Wullee Mahoinmed, who presented me with 
a copy of his poetical works at parting, and who, 
unknown to me, had sent several articles which 
might contribute to my convenience amongmy bag¬ 
gage. Having embarked at twelve o’clock on board 
the boat which was prepared for me, together with 
some officers, whom the Ameers had deputed to at¬ 
tend me, we immediately weighed anchor, and con¬ 
tinued a delightful voyage at the rate of about three 


128 


VISIT TO THE 


miles an hour till evening, when we moored for 
the night near Triccul. The barge was a large flat- 
bottomed vessel, resembling a steam-boat in appear - 
rance, fitted up with the greatest attention to com¬ 
fort, and supplied, as usual, with every necessary 
and luxury the country could afford,for my attend¬ 
ants and myself. On the deck were erected two 
wicker bungalows, one of which, destined for my 
accommodation, was as large as an officer’s tent, 
and nearly of the same form, being covered with 
scarlet cloth, and lined inside with chintz. A fleet 
of smaller boats accompanied us, having on board 
the horses, camels, &c. 

By day-break on the 22d, we again glided 
down the stream, and arrived opposite Tatta at 
night-fall. I had omitted to inform the Ameers 
of my wish to visit that famous city ; but this, I 
was resolved, should not prevent my taking ad¬ 
vantage of so favourable an opportunity to do so. 
On the morning of the following day I accord¬ 
ingly rode to it, a distance of about six miles from 
the river, through a woody country, and passed 
hurriedly along the streets to the large mosque 
built by the Emperor Aurungzebe, which I was 
most anxious to see. The officers who were with 
me expressed no objection to my visiting the city ; 
but as they had received no orders from the 
Ameers, they declined dismounting from their 
horses, while I was engaged in a hasty glance at 
the different objects of interest; and I was com 
strained to return to the boat, having seen only 


129 


COURT OF SINDE. 

enough to excite my curiosity without gratifying 
it, and not having had an opportunity of con vers- 
ing with a single inhabitant. I was for a few mi¬ 
nutes in the house erected by Mr Crow, formerly 
commercial agent in Sinde, a large building in the 
native style, situated near the centre of the town, 
from the roof of which I had an extensive view of 
the surrounding scenery. Tatta still retains many 
memorials of its ancient grandeur. The extent of 
ground which it covers is immense ; and the re¬ 
mains of tombs and mosques which are to be seen 
all around, would almost warrant a belief in the 
tradition of the people, that it was once twelve 
Sindian coss, or about thirty English miles in cir¬ 
cumference. It was there that I saw the only 
houses built of stone in Sinde. Unlike those of 
Hyderabad, the buildings of Tatta are generally 
substantial and elevated, though many of them 
are now ruinous and dilapidated. * 

* “ The celebrated river, which Europeans denominate 
the Indus, is called by the Hindoos Sindh, and gives its name 
to the country, though the part which lies on the west side from 
Hali Gliundh to the sea is, for the sake of distinction, termed 
Lar. The fertility of the country, when it is exposed to the 
inundation, is as great as that of Egypt, and subject to less 
variety and uncertainty; the waters being regular in their re¬ 
turn, departure, and quantity, beginning to rise about the 
latter end of April, and to subside early in September. The 
breadth of the swell varies according to the nature of the 
country through which the river passes; in general, I be¬ 
lieve, it is felt five miles from the banks on either side, and 


I 




130 


VISIT TO THE 


On the 24th we again pursued our voyage, 
and by evening had reached Sitah, a landing-place 
near Peer Putta, which was visible at about ten 
miles distance. I met with little worthy of remark 
on my passage down the Indus ; and I have men¬ 
tioned in the sketch of my route the various towns 
which attracted my notice. I saw no signs of culti¬ 
vation except a single field of mustard; the country 
being a jungle laid waste for hunting forests, or, as 
in the approach towards Tattah,and on the western 
side, a desert hilly district. The banks of the river 
were generally low and shelving ; a description, I 
believe, which applies to those of the Indus for 
. many miles from its mouth. The classic river of 
Sinde, as far as I saw it, with all its beauties and 
peculiarities, has been so well and so fully de¬ 
scribed, in Captain Maxfield’s survey and the re¬ 
ports I formerly mentioned, that little is left for 
me to comment on: it is also unnecessary here to 
trouble the reader with remarks which have been 
made by others, and which will be found in the 

in many parts much more, particularly in the Delta. The 
Indus, as a river, has few merits except its periodical swell; 
its stream is foul and muddy, and so full of shoals and shifting 
sands, that flat-bottomed boats only are safe, and scarcely any 
other are used ; its course is extremely crooked, and towards 
the sea very inconstant. Marks of the caprice of the river 
abound in the lower country; the most striking of which are, 
the bed of a large stream now perfectly dry, about five miles 
from Corachee, and about five miles further, at a place cal¬ 
led Guissary, &c.”— Crow. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


I 31 


most interesting form, in the writings of Major 
Rennell, Mr Crow, * and Colonel Pottinger. Some 
observations which have occurred to me on the 
geography of Alexander’s Route are appended to 
the present narrative, but I cannot say that I 
think them deserving of much consideration. 

In a preceding paragraph, I have alluded to 
the moderate means possessed by the Ameers for 
repelling an invasion of their territory; and a single 
glance at the Indus will show the easy passage into 
the very heart of their dominions, which that river 
offers to a maritime power. The state-barge 
which conveyed me to Sitah, although flat-bot¬ 
tomed, was, in my opinion, capable of transport¬ 
ing half a regiment; and, during the voyage, we 
met many others equally capacious. I am ignorant 
of naval tactics ; hut I have no doubt that armed 
steam-boats of small burden might act with pe¬ 
culiar efficacy ; and although the shoals and cur- 


* Of the alligators in the river Indus, Mr Crow speaks as fol¬ 
lows :—‘ c The alligators should not be forgotten, for they are 
very numerous, and much respected, not only by the Hindoos, 
but also by the Mahommedans. The tutelar god of Corachee 
is a scaly monster, with a train of females and dependants, 
nourished in the muddy rivulets which flow from the hot 
springs near Corachee, called Peer Munga, from the name 
of a saint who formerly resided there. It is singular to see 
these animals sometimes dozing close to the mouth of the 
spring where the water is almost boiling hot, and sometimes 
wallowing in the pools which are perfectly cold.”— Crow. 



132 


VISIT TO THE 


rents in the stream might at first appear an im¬ 
pediment, war would scarcely be declared before 
the decks of our vessels were crowded with vo¬ 
lunteers, well acquainted with the navigation, and 
ready to contribute their utmost efforts for the sub¬ 
version of the present government. 

At Sitah I was again met by Hyder Khan 
Lagharee, by whom I was conducted through a 
productive country to Mugrbhey, and from thence 
through the desolate tract I have mentioned in 
the commencement of my narrative, to Luckput, 
which I reached on the 28th of January. 

I had scarcely put my foot on the shore of Cutch, 
when a letter from the resident, of date the 18th 
January, authorizing me to remain in Sinde, pend¬ 
ing a reference to government, was delivered to 
me ; together with a note from Colonel Leighton, 
which that gentleman had kindly written me from 
Surat, to say that the proceedings of the court-mar¬ 
tial had terminated, and that my evidence was unne¬ 
cessary. I lost not an hour in apprizing the Ameers 
of this information, and again crossed into Sinde on 
my return to Hyderabad ; but I had not proceeded 
more than thirty miles, when hearing of Sobdar’s 
rebellion, and of the distracted state of the coun¬ 
try, I determined to await the answer to my letters. 
I remained several days at Pallia, a wretched halt¬ 
ing-place in the Runn, amid rumours of battles and 
murder, till the 13th, when I received a message, 
through the agent, from the Ameers, entreating me 


couirr of sinde. 


1 33 


not to venture forward in the present state of 
affairs; and, accordingly, I deemed it prudent to fall 
back to Luckput, where I shortly after received the 
orders of the Honourable the Governor in Council 
to return to Bhooj. 

On learning that government had no wish to 
effect the establishment of a resident in Sinde, I 
thought it proper to give the native agent at Hy¬ 
derabad to understand, that it was likely I would 
be employed in a particular duty, which would pre¬ 
clude the possibility of my fulfilling my promise 
of revisiting the Ameers. This was, no doubt, 
explained perfectly to their satisfaction, as their 
Highnesses have carried on a constant correspon¬ 
dence with me ever since I left them. Their letters 
are of the most friendly description, and evidently 
show a wish on their part to maintain a good un¬ 
derstanding with me ; nor should I conceal that I 
believe it is even yet in my power to induce them 
again to invite me to their court, and to consent to 
my permanent residence in their capital. 

In conclusion, I must lay claim to indulgence 
for the many imperfections which, I am sensible, 
may be discovered in this narrative ; imperfections 
which I earnestly hope will rather be attributed 
to the difficulties I have encountered in drawing 
it up, than to any neglect or indifference on my 
part. I cannot but remark also, that, like all per¬ 
sons who undertake to write personal narratives of 
their proceedings, I have too often been obliged to 


134 


VISIT TO THE 


speak of myself and my conduct in terms which 
a fastidious, or probably a very correct feeling, 
might condemn; but in extenuation, I can only 
say, that I have been actuated by a sincere desire 

to represent things as they really are; nor can I 

/ 

accuse myself of having entered more fully into 
my transactions with the Ameers than was ab¬ 
solutely necessary to exhibit their characters and 
manners in a proper light. That much has been 
suppressed which it might have been gratify¬ 
ing to record, may be seen on reference to the 
letters which the native agent in Sinde addressed 
to the resident in Cutch, during my stay at Hyde¬ 
rabad, and which have fallen into my hands since 
my return to Bhooj. 

Postscript.* —Since the completion of the 
foregoing narrative, an event, worthy of record, 
has occurred in Sinde, and fully realized the 
anticipations expressed in the preceding pages. 
Meer Kurm Ali died of fever in December 1828, 
leaving Mourad Ali, now the only surviving of 
the four brothers who established the Talpoor dy¬ 
nasty, the sole and undisputed sovereign of the 
country, with a greater degree of power vested in 
his single person, than was ever previously shared 
by the family. The deceased chief is much la¬ 
mented by his dependants, to whom he had en- 


* August 15, 1829. 



COURT OF SINDE. 


135 


deared himself by kindness and liberality ; and bis 
death will no doubt cause a considerable revolu¬ 
tion in the appearance of the court, the style and 
dignity of which were supported principally at 
his cost. 

Among the stipulations by which Sobdar’s re¬ 
bellion, in February 1828, was settled, there was 
a promise sacredly given on the Koran by Kurm 
Ali, that he would adopt that prince as his heir; 
but Sobdar, whose weak character is known, sunk 
into his former insignificance soon after the recon¬ 
ciliation was concluded, and tamely permitted 
those who had taken the field in his cause to in¬ 
cur the vengeance and cruelty of the chief Ameers* 
It will not excite surprise, therefore, that on the 
demise of his uncle, he wanted spirit to claim the 
treasures to which he was entitled : accordingly, 
Mourad Ali first contrived, under some pretence, 
that they should be left in deposit with his late 
brother’s wives, and latterly, he has appropriated 
them entirely to himself. The territorial posses¬ 
sions of Kurm Ali, with the exception of small 
estates granted to the young Ameers, have also 
devolved into the hands of the present ruler, under 
whose vigorous sway Sinde is likely, for some time 
at least, to enjoy undisturbed tranquillity. 



136 


REMARKS ON 


REMARKS ON ALEXANDER’S ROUTE. 

\ 


Appended to the copy of the narrative, which I had lately 
the honour of forwarding to government, were several me¬ 
moranda respecting the Indus and my route after I left its 
banks ; but, as most of these appear to me neither interesting 
nor important, I deem it unnecessary now to transcribe them. 
The following crude observations, or rather fancies, which 
were hastily committed to paper, during my passage down the 
river, I shall allow, however, to remain, not only from the 
natural desire which every person who visits Sinde must feel 
to say something regarding the Indus, but also as they may 
assist some other gentleman who may be disposed to prosecute 
so interesting ail inquiry as the geography of Alexander’s route. 
It will be seen that my opinions are founded chiefly on the 
supposition that the river is now nearly the same as the Greeks 
found it, above two thousand years ago ; than which, I need 
scarcely say, nothing can be more uncertain. I felt a strong 
desire to collect a number of facts regarding the Indus; and 
during my stay in Sinde, as well as since my return, I have ex¬ 
amined several natives on the subject; but all I can gather 
from them are accounts of its inconstancy, and of the many and 
sudden changes it has undergone, even in the short period of 
their personal experience. A very intelligent young native of 
Khorasan, whom I brought with me from Hyderabad, where 
he had resided many years, in explaining to me this peculiarity 
of the river, said, it was so little to be depended on, that a 
person embarking at any of the higher stations with the inten¬ 
tion of proceeding by a particular stream to the sea, could not 
be certain of finding the branch below Tatta he proposed to 



ALEXANDER’S ROUTE. 


137 


navigate, and of the existence of which he had been assured 
a few days previous to the commencement of his voyage. * 

Below Tatta the river Indus divides into two large arms; 
the JVleyraun and the Bugghaur. I followed the course of 
the latter, which is also named Sitali, and which, at the place 
of division, is the larger of the two. Four coss below Tatta 
on the left bank is the small village of Summa. The river 
is here three quarters of a mile in width. There is nothing of 
this division of the Indus into two large and nearly equal 
branches, in Arrowsmith’s and Carey’s maps; but it is evi¬ 
dently laid down correctly in the quarter-master-general’s 
manuscript one. The Meyraun, although the smaller at 
first, is described as the main river, and as passing Lahory 
and Barajay Bunders into the sea; and this tallies exactly 
with the name and information given to Major Rennell to¬ 
wards the close of last century. 

After all, the ancients, I believe, had a better idea of the 
Delta of the Indus, than the writers of our time. Arrian says, 
(1. vi. c. 17-18.) ff This realm the river Indus incloses, in 
the form of the Greek letter A, and it is much larger than the 
Egyptian province of that name. Near Patala the Indus di¬ 
vides itself into two vast branches, both of which bear the same 
name to the sea.” Of the correctness of the latter part of this 
description I have ocular demonstration; arid the people de¬ 
clare, that, although the Bugghaur or Sitali, in which I am now 
sailing, soon divides itself into branches, and disembogues its 
waters chiefly at Wanyance; yet, with a little difficulty, I could 
reach Busta Bunder, and consequently the Luck put creek or 
real easternmost branch of the Indus. Had modern geographers 
known this, they might have spared themselves the trouble 
of calling in the assistance of the Nulla Sunkra, to account 
for Alexander’s going down the eastern branch. There is 


* The following memoranda were noted down on the Indus, 24th Janu¬ 
ary 1828. 




138 


REMARKS ON 


no Nulla Sunkra, as far as I could ascertain, known at the 
present day in Sinde; and although some one of the risers 
may still bear that appellation, or, at all events, had it about 
the middle of last century, when it is expressly mentioned in 
the treaty of partition between Nadir Shah and the king of 
Delhi, it must have been the Phuraun,* the Phulailee, or the 
Pirsyaree; and in that case we must either believe that the 
present Tatta, and the ruins in its neighbourhood, Bramina- 
bad, are not the site of the Patala of the Greeks, or that Alex¬ 
ander went up the river from Tatta to enter and explore the 
eastern branch of the Indus, of which there is neither an ac¬ 
count nor a probability. Nothing is more perplexing than the 
diversity of names, so common in eastern countries, which is 
to be attributed to the natives themselves, who have many 
appellations for the same river, and who are constantly chang¬ 
ing them like a matter of fashion. 

Were we to suppose that the Macedonian hero navigated 
the Bugghaur or Sitah, all the circumstances of his second 
voyage down the Indus might be accounted for without draw¬ 
ing too strongly on our belief. The lake t in which he arriv- 


* The following extract from the treaty of partition would almost lead us 
to believe that the Nulla Sunkra was the Phuraun or Koree River, the most 
easterly branch of the J ndus, which, at its mouth, divides Sinde from Cutch. 

“ In consideration of the favour which no father shows to a son, and no 
brother to a brother, I make over to him (Nadir Shah,) all the country to 
the west of the river Attok, the water of Sinde, and the Nulla Sunkra, which 
is a branch of the water of Sinde. That is to say, &c. All their fields, 
villages, castles, towns, and ports, from the first rise of the river Attok, with 
all the passes and habitations, which the above said water and its several * 
branches comprehends, and surrounds as far as the Nulla Sunkra, where 
it empties itself into the sea, &c.” 

*|* Arrian’s description of the lake would almost apply to the Runn, flood¬ 
ed as it was when Alexander sailed down the river. “ When he had sailed 
down the left branch, and was now near the mouth thereof, he came to a 
certain lake formed by the river, spreading wide over a flat country, or by 
additional streams flowing in from the adjacent parts, and making it appear 
like a bay in the sea.”—1. vi. c. 20. 


4 



ALEXANDERS ROUTE. 


139 


ed abounding with fish, as Arrian says, might reasonably be 
supposed to be the present Luckput creek, which is ten miles 
wide near the sea. We are told that after passing the lake 
he made three days’ journey * along the coast, ordering wells 
to be dug as he went. Geographers have differed about his 
entering Cutcli; but supposing he landed near Narraensir, 
and marched, as Dr Vincent calculates, sixty miles, he must 
have reached Sandan, in the Abbrassa, and passed through 
the country now occupied by the villages of Bheyr Jackow 
and Kotorah, all of which may be said, in consequence, to be 
classic ground. The situation of Xylenopolis, t as laid down 
in the maps of ancient geography, is nearer the site of the 
modern town of Luckput, that is, further up the Creek or 
Koree river, than Narraensir ; and if we believe that Alexan¬ 
der landed there, and still performed a march of sixty miles, 
he could not have proceeded further than Juckow Bunder. 

It is not impossible that Patala may have been situated 
where the modern town of Jerkh is placed, and in that case 
Alexander may have navigated the Punjaree branch, which 
passes by Bunna Laigpoor, Meerpore, and Mugrbhey, and 
which also would have brought him to the Luckput creek. 
It is worthy of observation, that I can gain no information of so 
large a river passing from the Bliuggaur, and termed the Meet 
Meeraun, as that represented in the quarter-master general’s 
map; and I am assured that at this season it is impossible to 
reach Mugrbhey by any other route by water, than by the Pun¬ 
jaree. This does not, however, offer any difficulty to Alex¬ 
ander’s passing down it in August or September, as then it 
would be a very large river ; and the Residency Moonshee in¬ 
forms me that he and his family embarked at Tatta twenty- 


* <£ Then going on shore with a party of horse, he travelled three days 
along the sea coast to view it, and try if he could find any bays or creeks to 
secure his fleet from storms.”—1. vi. c. 20. 

-j- Xylenopolis means the city of woods ; a most inapplicable term certain¬ 
ly, to the present Luckput and its vicinity. 



140 


REMARKS ON 


six years ago, and went down by this identical branch to Cota- 
sir in the Luckput creek. I have not presumed to alter the 
name given to it on the map, though I must add that the de¬ 
signation of Meet Meeraun, as applied to this river, is, as far 
as I could learn, unknown in Sinde. 

There is no good reason, however, in my humble opinion, to 
doubt that Tatta is the site of the Patala of the ancients. 
Arrian says that the word “ Patala” corresponded with 

Delta” in the Greek ; and there is certainly no part of the 
modern Indus which deserves the name of a Delta but that 
below Tatta; nor can we suppose that Alexander or his fol¬ 
lowers, who had seen the Delta of the Nile, would have de¬ 
signated any of the branches higher up, which were all very 
small at the season of the year he saw them, by such an appel¬ 
lation. Further, as a proof of Patala not being higher up, 
we are informed that Alexander, after leaving it, in his first 
voyage down the Indus, followed the course of the right 
branch (the modern Meyraun no doubt,) and that he had only 
sailed four hundred furlongs or fifty miles, when his pilots 
announced to him their approach to the ocean; on hearing 
which, it is said, he leaped for joy. The ascertained distance 
from Tatta to the sea is eighty miles; and we can scarcely, 
therefore, imagine that the pilots, with all their experience in 
distinguishing the sea air, as stated in history, could have fore¬ 
told the proximity of the ocean at a greater distance than thir¬ 
ty miles. The only argument against this opinion is, that the 
tides affect the Indus to about sixty miles from its mouth, 
and that the Macedonians ought, therefore, to have disco¬ 
vered the ebb and How, which amazed and alarmed them so 
much afterwards, long before they were within thirty miles 
of the sea. But it is not too much to believe that they were 
carried down by the current, then running four or five knots 
an hour, many miles without perceiving it; an occurrence 
which might happen to any navigator, particularly at the sea¬ 
son of the year they were in Sinde, when the river is so much 
enlarged ; and that they only became acquainted with the ap- 

3 



jBtfUan/c-ie Lithe, 


r: trios. 


lhniecl- 

If/icms. 


(Tcface SffC' /J/‘Z) 






































































































141 


ALEXANDER’S ROUTE. 

palling phenomenon by the violent obstacle which the How of 
the tide, accompanied with the south-west monsoon, presented 
to their progress. This may appear inconsistent, from the fact 
of Leonatus, with a body of troops on shore, being ordered to 
regulate his movements by those of the fleet; but the very 
nature of the country near the mouths of the Indus must have 
rendered it impossible for him to remain always in sight of 
the ships. 

It is a singular proof of the superior correctness of the an¬ 
cient geographers, that Arrian’s account of the chief mouth of 
the Indus being about twelve miles wide, has been proved to 
be strictly consistent with fact by modern discoveries ; al¬ 
though Dr Vincent has taken great pains to expose his inaccu¬ 
racy in this respect, which, he says, may mainly be attributed 
to exaggeration, caused by fear. * 


* u And as it now approached the sea, the stream appeared enlarged to 
two hundred stadia.” —Arrian— “ An exaggeration which ho computation 
of the stadium, no allowance for the overflowing of the river can justify !” 
—Vincent. 







* 















A 


SKETCH 

OF THE 

HISTORY OF CUTCH. 



















1 








/ 














■ 




























u 

•8 S 

t 

V 

§ 


$ 

\ 

^ * 



’ * 


$ 



I 

a 

1 






* 


& 

o 





























































































































# t 





















































PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 




The following “ Sketch of the History of Cutch since 
its connexion with the British Government” was compiled 
from public documents some years ago, as a supplement to a 
short history of that country by Captain Charles Walter, 
and in order to gratify the curiosity of a few friends, who 
expressed a strong desire to know something of the life 
and proceedings of the Ex-Rao, Bhalmulgee, a state pri¬ 
soner in Bhooj. Not having Captain Walter's papers at 
hand to refer to, I have prefixed a short outline of the early 
history of Cutch, which consists simply of extracts from 
official reports by the honourable Mountstuart Elphin- 
stone, lieutenant-colonel Pottinger, political resident at 
Bhooj, and lieutenant James Holland, deputy-assistant 
quarter-master general of the Bombay Army. 

The following Letter, which has reference to the His¬ 
torical Sketch of Cutch, may be inserted here:— 

Bombay Castle , 22 d, April 1830. 

(Political Department, No. 526.) 

Sir, — I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter, dated the 29th March, with a copy of one from Dr 
Burncs, and to request that you will convey to that offi¬ 
cer the thanks of government for the valuable sketch of 
the recent History of Cutch which accompanied it. 


K 



146 


PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 


You will also be pleased to express to Dr Burnes the 
real satisfaction with which government observes public 
officers devote their leisure to such objects of useful re¬ 
search, and to acquaint him that his clear and concise ac¬ 
count of Cutch will be brought to the notice of the Ho¬ 
nourable the Court of Directors.—I have the honour to 
be, &c. 

(Signed) T. Williamson, 

Secretary to Government. 

To the Resident in Cutch. 


SECTION I. 


INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF 

CUTCH BEFORE THE BRITISH CONNEXION. 

About the ninth century of the Christian era, a 
body of supposed Moosulmans of the Summa tribe 
emigrated from Sinde, and, under the guidance of 
five brothers, settled in Cutch, of which by degrees 
they acquired the complete sovereignty; having 
either by force or fraud expelled, or subjected to 
their authority, the aboriginal inhabitants, consist¬ 
ing of three distinct classes, Wagellas, Katties, and 
Wagum Chowras. 

Four or five generations after their settlement, 
the descendants of the five brothers, assumed the 
name of Jharejah, * derived from a leader of the 
tribe named Jharrah, who set his descendants the 
example of female infanticide, by putting to death 
his seven daughters in one day. 


* Lieut. Holland’s Account of the Jharejahs. 



148 


SKETCH OF THE 


Cutch continued tranquil under their sway for 
many years, until the murder of 'Humeerjee, the 
chief of the elder branch of the tribe, by ano¬ 
ther Jharejah, named Jam Rawul. Khengarjee, 
the son of Hameerjee, on the death of his father, 
fled to Ahmedabad to seek the assistance of the 
viceroy, who had married his sister; and this being 
readily granted, a force was sent into Cutch to 
reinstate him, as chief of the tribe, in his rights, 
which had been usurped by the murderer of his 
father. 

On the approach of the viceroy’s army Jam 
Rawul fled with his adherents to Kattiwar, and 
founded the town of Nawanuggur, which is pos¬ 
sessed by his descendants at the present day; and 
Khengarjee assumed the sovereignty of Cutch and 
Moorvee in Kattiwar, with the title of Rao or 
Rawul, a. D. 1549. 

From the time of Khengarjee until that of Ra- 
hiden, a.d. 1666, the succession continued accord¬ 
ing to the law of primogeniture. Pragjee, the third 
son of the latter prince, murdered his elder brother, 
Jewajee, and the second brother, Nongaljee, hav¬ 
ing died in the interim, Pragjee, on the death of 
his father in 1698, ascended the musnud, to the 
prejudice of his nephews, Kianjee, the son of 
Jewajee, and Kallajee, the son of Nongaljee. To 
the former he gave the command of Moorvee in 
Kattiwar, which his descendants still retain ; the 
latter retired into the Ubrassa, and took possession 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 149 

of the principal towns in that district, where his 
descendants have ever since possessed the chief in¬ 
fluence. 

Pragjee was succeeded, in the year 1716, by his 
son, Gorejee, a brave and enterprizing prince, who 
had distinguished himself by his courage and con¬ 
duct during the lifetime of his father, but whose 
reign is not marked by any occurrence of note : he 
was succeeded by his son, Rao Daisul. 

Rao Daisul ascended the throne, a. d. 1719. * 
At no period was Cutch so respectable as during 
his rule. He not only repelled four armies despatch¬ 
ed from Ahmedabad by the emperor’s deputy, to 
enforce the payment of tribute, but sent his troops 
across the frontier, and established military posts 
in Sinde, Parkhur, and Okhamundel, by which 
steps he checked the predatory horse from the two 
former quarters, and piracy at the latter. 

He also took possession of various towns and 
villages along the southern coast of the Gulf of 
Cutch, to which he laid claim on account of his 
relationship to the Rajah of Moorvee ; and, not¬ 
withstanding all these expensive exertions, ex¬ 
clusive of many improvements he carried on in 
his own territories, he died at an advanced age, 
leaving a treasury well stocked with money. 

The latter ten years of his life were embittered 
by the unkindness of his son, the Prince Dacca, 


* Lieut.-colonel Pottinger’s Abstract. 




150 


SKETCH OE THE 


who threw him into confinement, and also had his 
celebrated minister, Sett Deokurn, assassinated. 

Lacca assumed the supreme authority about the 
year 1745. The character and forms of the durbar 
were entirely changed by the luxurious and extra¬ 
vagant splendour that were introduced during his 
reign, which lasted about ten years after the decease 
of his father. The advanced posts placed by Rao 
Daisul in Parkhur and Sinde were driven out; and 
his son, afterwards Rao Gore, rose in open rebellion 
against him. Of this period Captain Walter says, 
“ The affairs of the state were left in the hands 
of a succession of incapable ministers, from whom 
the only qualification required was assent to every 
plan, however disreputable or atrocious, which 
could contribute to the Rao’s vanity or profusion. 
Scenes of cruelty and oppression previously un¬ 
known became frequent, &c. 

Either two or three ministers were put to death 
during this reign. Poonjah Sett, the son of the ce¬ 
lebrated Deokurn Sett, minister of Rao Daisul, 
was disgraced and dismissed; and the Prince Gor- 
gee retired to, and resided at, Moondrah for the 
last seven years of his fathers life. Forces were 
frequently sent against him, but were invariably 
unsuccessful; and although none of the neigh¬ 
bouring powers attempted to invade Cutcli in Rao 
Lacca’s time, and his whole strength was there¬ 
fore disposable, yet it was in vain exerted to sub¬ 
due the rebellion headed by his own son in the very 


151 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 

\\ 

heart of his dominions. He also made an abor¬ 
tive attack on the town and fort of Terah in the 
Abbrassa, the patrimony of Soomrajee Jharejah, in 
which he was beaten off, and obliged to return to 
his capital discomfited. 

On the death of Rao Lacca, his only legitimate 
son, in 1760, Gore, was unanimously acknow¬ 
ledged, although his father had tried to secure the 
accession for one of his numerous illegitimate chil¬ 
dren. Poonjali Sett, as soon as he heard of Rao 
Lacca’s death, hastened to Bhooj, in the expecta¬ 
tion of being made minister ; but he was treated 
with undisguised contempt and hostility; and hear¬ 
ing that a plot had been formed to assassinate him, 
he fled to Sinde, and the situation he had aspired 
to was filled by a distant relative of his own called 
Jeewun Sett. 

Cutch was invaded no less than four times by 
the Sindians during this reign; and on each ot 
these occasions the country was desolated and 
plundered, although the invaders did not succeed 
in forming a permanent settlement. Two of the 
inroads were headed by Gholam Shah Calora in 
person, and two of them by his son Surufraz 
Khan. The former wished to compel the Rao to 
give him his sister in marriage ; but after a treaty 
had been entered into, in which this stipulation 
stood as an article, it was evaded, and Gholam 
Shah was glad, on his second invasion, to content 
himself with the daughter of the chief of Khau- 


152 


SKETCH OF THE 


ker, whose family stood next in pretensions to the 
throne. 

The inability of Cutch to withstand the power 
of Sinde was clearly demonstrated by these events ; 
for although the Rao engaged mercenaries from 
the Nuwab of Rahidenpoor, the Jam of Nuwanug- 
gur, the chief of Moorvee, and others, yet even with 
all this foreign aid, had it not been for Poonjah 
Sett, (who first instigated Gholam Shah to the at¬ 
tack, but afterwards repented and persuaded him 
to return to Hyderabad,) it seems from all accounts 
probable that the Cutch government would then 
have been subverted. When the Sindians retired, 
Poonjah Sett was made minister; but soon after 
the Rao presented him with his own hand with a 
bowl of poison, and ordered him to drink it in his 
presence, merely because he had recommended an 
adherence to the articles of the treaty. His son 
Deoj ee Sett accepted the office of minister about 
three years subsequent to this, and likewise met 
an untimely fate by poison. 

On quitting Cutch, Gholam Shah left a garrison 
of 5000 men at Luckput Bunder, which was then 
a petty town. He also proceeded to build an em¬ 
bankment to prevent the waters of the Indus from 
falling into the sea through the eastern branch of 
that river, which passes close to Luckput; and by 
this unjustifiable act he converted a fertile plain, 
which yielded from rice cultivation a revenue of 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 

, 


153 


eight lacs of cories annually to the Bliooj durbar, 
into a dreary salt marsh. 

When Gholam Shah died, his son Surufraz Khan 
recalled his troops from Luckput, but, as before 
stated, he twice after this entered Cutch with a con¬ 
siderable force, and devastated a great part of the 
country before he quitted it. 

The garrisons on the part of Cutch in Ballumba, 
and other places, on the northern coast of Kattiwar, 
were expelled by the dependants of the Jam about 
this time ; and, instead of resenting these injuries, 
or at least attempting it, the Rao gave up his whole 
time and thoughts to the most unheard of cruelty 
and sensuality. He kept a body of negroes about 
his person, who allowed no one but the partakers 
of his disgusting and depraved orgies to approach 
him. At length the ladies of the durbar prevail¬ 
ed on some of the principal officers to confine the 
Rao ; and whilst he was under this temporary re¬ 
straint, the whole of the negroes were either put 
to death, or fled to the adjacent countries. The 
Rao was so much irritated, that, on being released, 
he proceeded to Mandavie in disgust, and there oc¬ 
cupied himself in building a fine palace, which, 
however, he never completely finished. 

After stating these facts, it is almost superfluous 
to say, that Rao Gore was a cruel and blood-thirsty 
tyrant. Exclusively of the revolting instances al¬ 
ready detailed, he killed with his own hand his 
brother Mansingjee, simply because he discovered 


154 


SKETCH OF THE 


that lie had obtained the favours of a female who 
had declined his visits ; and it is estimated that in 
the course of his reign, a period of nineteen years, 
he sacrified more than thirty ministers to his rage 
or rapacity. He left two sons, the prince Rahiden, 
and Pruthiraj, commonly called Bhyjee Bawa, the 
former of whom succeeded him. 

Rao Rahiden began to reign in 1778, at the ear¬ 
ly age of fourteen. His mother had appointed a 
Lohana, by name Dewichund, minister; and it was 
supposed, from the intercourse they afterwards car¬ 
ried on, that her connexion with him had been 
criminal, even during Rao Gore’s lifetime. 

Rao Rahiden had been accustomed from his in¬ 
fancy to hear of and see scenes of bloodshed and 
vice; and he quickly afforded proof that he was 
a most apt scholar in such matters, and needed not 
the dying exhortations of his father to revenge his 
mother’s infidelity on the tribe (Lohana), to which 
her paramour belonged. He very soon replaced the 
negroes who had been turned out or destroyed some 
years before; and with their assistance he put to 
death in one day the minister Dewichund, together 
with his three brothers, and above two hundred of 
their followers. 

A Banian minister was next set up under the aus¬ 
pices of a negro jemidar, named Mecraj ; but these 
ill-assorted authorities soon quarrelled. Parties ar¬ 
ranged themselves on each side; and whilst the Rao 
was indulged in the inner apartments with a few 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


155 


companions in deeds of abandoned lust and profli¬ 
gacy, the palace was daily deluged with the blood 
of those who were contending for his favour. Some 
of the most desperate of the negroes were banished, 
and others put out of the way by poison, which, it 
is even asserted, the Rao himself mixed with their 
food, to ridhimself of their continual importunities; 
but those who remained of this class had influence 
enough to obtain the Rao’s order to destroy the Ba¬ 
nian, which was done without delay in the public 
durbar. 

On hearing of these nefarious proceedings, many 
of the district officers affected to consider them¬ 
selves freed from all allegiance toBhooj. Manda- 
vie, however, and some other important places, con¬ 
tinued obedient to the Rao; who, having recently 
adopted the Mussulman religion, resolved to force 
his subjects to follow his example, which he deter¬ 
mined to do by destroying all the Hindoo temples 
and images. This mad project he first tried atMan- 
davie, whither he had gone for the express purpose; 
but the Brahmins and Banians, who form a large 
portion of the population, opposed him, and threat¬ 
ened, according to their mode of enforcing their 
wishes, to commit “ traga ” on themselves. The 

4 

Rao, to let them clearly comprehend how careless 
he was of such denunciations, drew his sword and 
wounded five or six of them, before his attendants 
could seize his hand. He then gave directions that 
the town should be pillaged; an outrage which was 


156 


SKETCH 01' THE 


happily prevented by the rich merchants bribing 
the garrison to oppose the miscreants who had 
gladly hastened to carry the Rao’s orders into exe¬ 
cution. In the meantime, the Rao was himself in 
great danger from the exasperated feelings of the 
inhabitants, who attacked him and his escort, and 
obliged them to make a rapid retreat to Bhooj ; 
where, as a compensation for the disappointment he 
had met with, and the opposition offered to him at 
Mandavie, he adopted the plan of moving about 
the streets habited as a fukeer, and accompanied 
by a body of his negroes, who put every man whom 
they met to death, unless he was able and willing 
to repeat the Maliommedan creed. 

It now became notorious that the Rao was de¬ 
ranged ; and after two or three attempts to place 
him under restraint, in which measure his brother 
Bhyjee Bawa and the ladies of the palace concur¬ 
red, he was seized by a body of troops which had 
been secretly called in from Anjar. In one of the 
various unsuccessful attempts made to secure his 
person, which he constantly baffled through the 
vigilance and ferocity of his negroes, the then 
minister Kotaree Waga, and above three hundred 
people, were destroyed in cold blood in one of the 
palace yards, by the Rao and his desperate asso¬ 
ciates. 

From this time the Rao was lodged in confine¬ 
ment ; * but his brother Bhyjee Bawa being too 


* The honourable M. Elphinstone’s Minute . 



HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


157 


young to assume the direction of affairs, the go¬ 
vernment was conducted by twelve commanders 
of mercenary troops, who appear to have been all 
Maliommedans, and who were guided by the au¬ 
thority of Dhosul Vain, the principal member of 
their own body. 

Among these leaders was Futteh Mahormned, 
a native of Sinde. This person appears to have 
been endowed with capacity and courage. Finding 
the government of Dhosul Vain at once weak and 
odious, he successfully intrigued with the troops, 
with the ministers by whom the civil business of 
the government was still conducted, and with 
some of the Jharejahs ; until, in the year 1792 , he 
was enabled to expel Dhosul Vain and his col¬ 
leagues, and to transfer the reins of government 
into his own hands. He conducted the affairs of 
Cutch with firmness and ability for ten years, un¬ 
til Bhyjee Bawa, as regent, in whose name Fut¬ 
teh Mahommed appears to have administered the 
government, became of age, and began to feel the 
hardship of his exclusion from the regency. Huns- 
raj and the other ministers who were dissatisfied 
with the predominance of Futteh Mahommed, avail¬ 
ed themselves of this feeling; and, seizing the op¬ 
portunity of a casual absence of Futteh Mahommed 
from the capital, they carried off Bhyjee to Manda- 
vie, of which Hunsraj was at that time in charge. 
The wealth and respectable character of Hunsraj, 
the junction of the other ministers, and the popular 


158 


SKETCH OF THE 


manners of Bliyjee, joined to the goodness of his 
cause, soon drew the majority to his party; while 
Futteh Mahommed was glad to abandon Bhooj, 
and to compromise his claim to the administration 
for the possession of the fort and dependencies of 
Anjar. 

The death of Bhyjee, which happened in 1802, 
six months after the revolution, restored the as¬ 
cendancy of Futteh Mahommed. Hunsraj was a 
merchant, and his wealth and popularity were in¬ 
sufficient to make up for the want of knowledge 
and confidence in military affairs. He withdrew 
to Mandavie, leaving Bhooj to be captured by Fut¬ 
teh Mahommed, while Luckput Bunder, Moondra, 
Bitta, and Seesagud, with their districts, remained 
in the hands of independent chiefs,* who, although 
three of them professed Mahommedanism, were all 
close confederates of Hunsraj. These parties were 
supported entirely by their mercenary troops, con¬ 
sisting of Arabs, Sindees, and Mussulmans ofCutch. 
The Jharejahs appear to have possessed but little 
weight, and to have taken little interest in the strug¬ 
gle ; some remained at their forts entirely neutral, 
others served the contending parties for pay; and 
although the Rao’s person was in the hands of 
Futteh Mahommed, and Hunsraj had not even 
the shadow of legitimate authority, the greater 
part of the Bhyaud were entertained in his ser- 


* Mahommed Meyan Sotah, who enacted so prominent a 

part afterwards, was one of these. 

4 



HISTORY OF CtJTCH. 


159 


vice, or attached to his party. Futteh Mahom¬ 
med proceeded with vigour against such of these 
as came within his reach ; he fomented their fa¬ 
mily quarrels ; he besieged their forts; he levied 
contributions on various pretences, as well to fill 
his treasury as to gratify his revenge. His neces¬ 
sities obliged him also to impose numerous and 
severe taxes and fines on the merchants and ryots; 
but although these proceedings naturally created 
general discontent, there seems to have been no at¬ 
tempt to form any combination against him. He 
continued to govern the capital and the greater part 
of the Rao’s territories, and to carry on depreda¬ 
tions on the possessions of his rivals until his 
death ; and the name of the “ Jemidar” is now as 
much respected in Cutch as that of any of the 
Raos, his predecessors in authority. The death 
of Futteh Mahommed took place in 1813 ;—it was 
preceded by that of Hunsraj/ and shortly followed 
by that of Rao Rahiden. 

As long as Futteh Mahommed’s plans were 
attended with perfect success, he seems to have 
been as just and merciful as his situation and mo¬ 
tives would allow him to be; * but the slightest 
check or misfortune excited his wrath; and the 
annals of those days merely exhibit a tissue of 
civil wars, of assassinations, of public murders, of 
treachery, and of the grossest tyranny. Indeed, it 


* Col. Pottinger’s Character of Futteh Mahommed . 



1G0 


SKETCH OF THE 


was impossible, with the materials Futteh Maliom- 
med had to work upon, and the objects he had in 
view, that it could be otherwise; and although 
we may admire his courage, his liberality, the to¬ 
tal want of any sordid feeling, and the consequent 
poverty in which he died, yet we must abhor his 
cruelty, his revengeful feelings, his perfidy when 
it was necessary to his purpose, and the unsparing 
manner in which he subjected the unhappy people 
whom he professed to foster to the constantly 
renewed horrors of a civil war of the most cruel 
description, which he could only contrive to car¬ 
ry on, by inviting into the country and enlisting 
bodies of desperate mercenaries, whose pay always 
amounted to considerably more than the revenue he 
drew from the places subject to him. He was, in 
one word, the despotic and remorseless leader of a 
band of plunderers ; and if he showed a different 
and better feeling by founding two or three towns, 
building Luckput fort, and establishing a port at 
Toonah, he did all these from his wish to rival, 
and perhaps eventually to ruin, the chiefs who held 
places independent of him in the neighbourhood 
of these improvements. 

He commanded in person four unsuccessful ex¬ 
peditions against the fort of Luckput after it had 
turned against him, and he laid waste the defence¬ 
less towns and villages; butchering the inhabitants, 
who had been forced by his desertion of them, 
to submit to the chiefs opposed to him. They 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


161 


in their turn retaliated on his partizans; and I have 
myself been assured by some of the Potails of 
villages lying between Bhooj and Mandavie, that 
they have been pillaged and driven from their 
homes three times in one month by the troops of 
the contending parties. 


L 






162 


SKETCH OF THE 



SECTION II. 

u 

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE BRITISH 

I 

CONNEXION, TO THE CONCLUSION OF THE 
TREATY OF 1816. 

We have now arrived at a stage in the history 
of Cutch when its connexion with the British go¬ 
vernment forms the chief part of the detail; and 
it is here necessary, before proceeding to relate the 
consequences of the death of Futteh Mahommed, 
to revert a little, in order to trace the various ne¬ 
gotiations which took place. At one of the periods, 
1801-2, when Hunsraj, the governor of Mandavie, 
had gained a temporary ascendancy, he entreated 
the assistance of the Bombay government, in the 
name of Rao Rahiden, for the purpose of allaying 
the dissensions between himself and Futteh Ma¬ 
hommed, which destroyed the peace of the country; 
and, to obtain this mediation he offered to cede 
Cutch to the Honourable Company, provided the 
capital was reserved for the residence of the Rao, 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


163 


and arrangements were made for the future sup¬ 
port of his Highness. During the next two years, 
another proposal was received at Bombay to sub¬ 
sidize a body of British troops for the protection 
of Cutch, which was followed also by a third a 
short time after (1804), in which both Hunsraj 
and Futteh Mahommed concurred. 

But it was not the policy nor wish of the British 
government to form any closer alliance with the 
state of Cutch than what would merely gain for 
its own subjects, and those of its allies, protection 
against the unruly dependents of the Rao: and, 
accordingly, the only agreements entered into with 
the chieftains above-named, in 1809, were a provi¬ 
sion for the suppression of piracy, which had been 
carried on to a great extent from all the northern 
ports; and another for the security of Kattiwar and 
Guzerat, by a stipulation that no durbar troops 
should cross to the eastward of the Runn or Gulf 
of Cutch. In return for these engagements, the 
British government undertook to adjust the settle¬ 
ment of some pecuniary claims made by the Bhooj 
durbar on the Jam of Nuwanuggur, but declined 
to interfere further in the affairs of Cutch than 
merely to warn the government of Sinde against 
any attempt at the conquest of that country which 
the Ameers had shown a disposition to effect. 

These arrangements, unfortunately, did not ac¬ 
complish the object of the English government. 
The shores of Cutch continued to swarm with pi- 


164 


SKETCH OF THE 


rates, who committed their depredations in the most 
audacious manner, and to the interruption of all 
commerce. Sewiraj, the son of Hunsraj, who had 
succeeded his father in the command of Mandavie, 
encouraged these outrages by conniving at the 
escape of the most daring offenders; and further 
added to the evil, by imposing a tax on all vessels, 
not even excepting those furnished with British 
passes, which entered the Gulf of Cutch. Several 
of the Company’s cruizers were employed in check¬ 
ing these piracies; but they, nevertheless, increased 
to such an extent that the Bombay government 
at length resolved to send an agent to remonstrate 
with the Mandavie authorities, as well as to ob¬ 
tain payment of a sum of money due to the Ho¬ 
nourable Company, and his Highness the Guica- 
war, by Sewiraj Hunsraj. 

The person selected for this purpose was Cap¬ 
tain James M‘Murdo, a gentleman whose talents 
and accomplishments fully qualified him for the 
difficult task. A considerable marine force was 
placed at his disposal, and he was instructed to 
collect information respecting the haunts and 
strength of the pirates ;—a duty which he accom¬ 
plished often at great personal risk, and in a man¬ 
ner highly satisfactory. This officer had been 
but a few days at Mandavie when his penetration 
enabled him to discover that the pirates not only 
received protection at that place, but were even 
permitted to remain unpunished under the imme- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


165 


diate eye of Futteh Mahommed. A ship freight¬ 
ed with property to a considerable amount, belong¬ 
ing to Shah Darab, a prince of Cabul, was plun¬ 
dered in the Gulf of Cutch, by a miscreant named 
Nackwa Hussun, who carried his ill-gotten wealth 
to Bhooj, where he was allowed to squander it open¬ 
ly in every kind of dissipation. 

With Sewiraj Hunsraj, who satisfied all de¬ 
mands, Captain M c Murdo was able to come to an 
amicable agreement; but matters had scarcely been 
settled at Mandavie, when his attention was strong¬ 
ly attracted to Futteh Mahommed, who had now 
also begun to show his disregard of the stipula¬ 
tion of 1809. Bodies of banditti from the pro¬ 
vince of Wagur were daily permitted to cross into 
Kattiwar, which they ravaged and laid waste. A 
Sindee assassin of a British officer, (Captain Phelan,) 
who had escaped from Nuwanuggur, was em¬ 
ployed in the Bhooj durbar; the notorious pirate, 
Nackwa Hussun, with many others of the same 
description, were publicly encouraged to reside 
in that capital; and, as if all these violations of a 
sacred compact were insufficient, Futteh Mahom¬ 
med himself proceeded to lead a force across the 
Bunn into Parkur, and established a garrison at 
Santilpoor, with the avowed purpose of extending 
his authority in that quarter. 

These various infringements of the treaty were 
not allowed to pass without a spirited remon¬ 
strance upon the part of Captain M‘Murdo, who, 


166 


SKETCH OF THE 


having concluded his arrangements at Mandavie, 
had retired to Moorvee in Kattiwar, whence he 
reminded the Jemidar of his engagements, and 
urged him to maintain them. He called on him 
to make restitution of the property of Shah Darab, 
who had solicited the intercession of the Bombay 
government, and insisted on the immediate sur¬ 
render of the Sindee murderer and the pirate, as 
the only means of removing a most degrading sus- 
picion from Futteh Mahommed himself. Through 
this representation the garrison at Santilpore was 
withdrawn, and negociations were in progress for 
the punishment of the Wagur plunderers, &c. 
when Futteh Mahommed died. Having thus sup¬ 
plied the broken link, we now proceed to follow 
the regular chain of the narration. 

On the death of Futteh Mahommed, the go¬ 
vernment of Cutch devolved quietly on his two 
eldest sons, Hussain and Ibrahim Meyans. No¬ 
thing could be more dissimilar than the charac¬ 
ters of these young men. Ibrahim Meyan posses¬ 
sed talent, courage, and energy, with the two last 
of these qualities in excess ; although the younger 
of the two, he had already taken an active part in 
the affairs of the state ; and he had been entrusted 
with the command of the important fortress of 
Kunkote in Wagur, while his brother, who was 
understood to be of a weak, slow, and vacillating 
disposition, had been retained at Bhooj under his 
father’s own eye and direction. For some years 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


✓ 


167 


before his death, Futteh Mahommed had been 
chiefly guided by the counsels of Jugjeewan Meh- 
tah, a Nagur Brahmin, of fair reputation, in whose 
integrity he himself reposed implicit confidence, 
and to whose advice it was his earnest and dying 
request that his sons would pay respect and obe¬ 
dience. The influence, however, of this individual 
had given great dissatisfaction to many of those 
who were connected by the ties of blood with the 
Jemidar, and had not only been the cause of much 
jealousy to his sons, but had proved particularly 
irksome to their mother, Jumalbhye, a woman of 
an intriguing disposition, much under the guid¬ 
ance of Mahommed Meyan Sotah, the soi-disant 
lord of Moondra, one of the most turbulent cha¬ 
racters of the period, to whom she was nearly re¬ 
lated. The angry feelings of these members of 
his family on this account had required all Futteh 
Mahommed’s decision to restrain them, and they 
now broke forth with redoubled violence on his 
death. On hearing of that event, Ibrahim Meyan 
instantly returned from Kunkote, and, under the 
pretence of assembling his friends to assist at the 
ceremonies of his father’s funeral, he invited Ma¬ 
hommed Meyan Sotali, Malik Mahommed, Dos- 

% 

sul Vain, and other Mahommed officers, to Bhooj, 
where a party was immediately formed against 
Jugjeewan Mehtah, and a plan entered into for 
putting him to death. 

Hussain Meyan, Futteh Mahoinmed’s eldest 


s 


168 SKETCH OF THE 

/ 

son, does not appear to have been entrusted to the 
full extent with the designs of these conspirators ; 
either from an idea that he was partial to the in¬ 
tended victim, or that his timid and irresolute 
character rendered him unfit, in their estimation, 
for any measure which required secrecy and de¬ 
cision. The plot itself was discovered by the vi¬ 
gilance of an Arab Jemidar, named Ahya; who 
had obtained employment in the service of the 
durbar, through the patronage of Jugjeewan, 
and who, on hearing of his danger, came boldly 
forward, together with his countrymen, and de¬ 
clared their united intention of defending the 
Mehtah’s life and property against all attack. 

Matters had reached this crisis, when Rao Ra- 
hiden died; and an event occurred, which, from 
its adding religion to the other causes of dissen- 
tion, was calculated to inflame the rage of the 
parties to the uttermost. That unhappy prince, 

who had long been confined on account of insanity, 

/ 

among his other wild eccentricities, had always af¬ 
fected a fiery zeal for the Mahommedan faith, and 
had even attempted, when not under personal re¬ 
straint, to spread it by the sword throughout his 
dominions. Latterly, his ravings had been en¬ 
tirely on the subject of religion ; he had adopted 
all the austerities of the most devoted enthusiast, 
and had left directions that his body should be 
interred in a small mosque, which he had erect¬ 
ed for this particular purpose within the pre- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


169 


N . 

cincts of the palace. A request of this nature was 
too much in accordance with the religious preju¬ 
dices of Ibrahim Meyan and his Mussulman asso¬ 
ciates to be received with indifference. They lost 
not a moment in preparing to give effect to it in the 
most open and solemn manner ; and they had made 
every arrangement for the funeral, according to 
the forms prescribed by their creed, when Jug- 
jeewan Mehtah, accompanied by four or five hun¬ 
dred Rajpoots, forcibly seized the corpse and burn¬ 
ed it with great display and eeremofiy, agreeably 
to the customs of the Hindoos. 

This proceeding had been adopted chiefly at the 
instigation of the ladies of the palace, who viewed 
the proposed interment in the light of a profana¬ 
tion. Ibrahim Meyan and his party were either 
too much taken by surprise, or had really not 
power sufficient to prevent its completion, and the 
ashes of Rao Rahiden were deposited with those 
of his ancestors ; but it is almost needless to add, 
that Jugjeewan Mehtah’s conduct was esteemed by 
the Mahommedans as an act of atrocious sacrilege; 
and while it thus exasperated his enemies to the 
utmost, and unfortunately excited against him the 
general feelings of a powerful and military class 
of the community, it had also the more fatal effect, 
as will afterwards appear, of diminishing his popu¬ 
larity with the Arabs, his recent defenders. In 
this state of affairs, intrigues immediately com¬ 
menced regarding the succession to the throne, 


170 


SKETCH OF THE 


and were carried on with all virulence of party 
spirit for several weeks. Jugjeewan Mehtah and 
the principal Jharejah chiefs declared in favour of 
Ladoba, the lawful son of Bhyjee Bawa, and ne¬ 
phew of the late Rao Rahiden ; while the oppo¬ 
site faction resolved to elevate Maun Sing, the son 
of that prince by a slave girl. 

Both these competitors were young, and igno¬ 
rant of state affairs. Either of the two would have 
answered the general purposes of the Mahomme- 
dan party, who merely wished to place a puppet 
on the throne, that they might advance their own 
lawless designs, under the cover of his name and 
authority; and Ladoba, from being the younger 
and more legitimate, would in all probability have 
been preferred, had not the private feelings of 
Ibrahim Meyan interfered, and fixed the election 
on his rival. To explain this circumstance, we 
must enter briefly into the history of Ibrahim 
Meyan. About two years before the period at 
which we have arrived, that young man had formed 
an attachment for Kesser Bye, the sister of Maun 

i 

Sing, who, either from affection or ambitious mo¬ 
tives, returned his regard, while her brother en¬ 
couraged his stolen visits at the palace. The 
intercourse between the lovers was exposed, by a 
Marwarry Jemidar, named Malum Sing, to Futteh 
Mahommed, whose conduct on this occasion evinced 
the superiority of his character. A connexion 
with the family of the Rao, now easily within his 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


171 


reach, would have added much to his personal 
respectability, and might have been a sure means 
of continuing his power to his descendants ; but he 
disdained to purchase such an advantage at the 
expence of his duty and his reputation, and not 
only peremptorily forbade his son’s further visits - 
at the durbar, but forced him to leave the capital 
and remain in Wagur. On his return to Bhooj 
after his father’s death, Ibrahim Meyan renewed 
his intimacy with Kesser Bye, at whose entreaties 
he engaged to support her brother’s pretensions, 
to the exclusion of the lawful heir. Mahommed 
Meyan Sotah received a bribe of 50,000 cories ; 
and, by their united influence, Maun Sing was 
raised to the throne by the name of Rao Bharra, 
or Bharmuljee. 

No opposition appears to have been made to this 
election by the Jharejahs, many of whom remained 
in their own possessions indifferent to the passing 
events, while the others were either bribed to com¬ 
pliance, or afraid to object. Rao Bharmuljee was 
eighteen years of age when he ascended the throne. 
His previous life had been passed in the gloomy 
monotony of the palace, and his elevation made 
but little change in his situation. Except on occa¬ 
sions when he was required to appear in public as a 
pageant, he and his cousin Ladoba were alike kept 
in strict confinement, where they are said to have 
lived together in terms of the closest intimacy, and 
even to have engaged in plans for the subversion 


172 


SKETCH OF THE 


of the influence of the Moondra chieftain, who, in 
the name of Hussain Meyan, soon possessed him¬ 
self of all the authority, and contrived to fill Bhooj 
with his mercenary troops. All that two young 
princes so situated were able to attempt, was not 
likely to be effectual; but the haughty and over¬ 
bearing conduct of Mahommed Meyan Sotah at 
length had the effect of rousing the slumbering 
energies of Hussain Meyan himself, who, disgusted 
at the little consideration which had been shown 
him, privately abandoned the Mussulman party, 
and made overtures to that headed by Jugjeewan 
Melitah. 

Meanwhile the British government had, subse¬ 
quently to the death of Futteh Mahommed, renew¬ 
ed its application to Hussain Meyan, who, after 
some negociations, requested an agent should be sent 
to Bhooj. The person selected for this employment 
was Ragoba Appa, a man of competent talent and 
experience, with whom I have often conversed, 
and who was directed to adopt the most concilia¬ 
tory demeanour in his intercourse with the Cutch 
government. On his arrival at Bhooj, he found 
the parties in the state just detailed, and by his 
interposition confirmed the renewed friendship 
between the Melitah and Hussain Meyan, both of 
whom he found favourable to the object of his 
mission. The consequence of Ragoba Appa’s pro¬ 
ceedings was a request to Captain M‘Murdo, who 
was still atMoorvee, to visit Bhooj, and a remon- 

3 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 173 

strance to Hussain Meyan on the part of Jugjee- 
wan Mehtah, who, as yet supported by the Arabs, 
and now inspired with confidence by the presence 
of the British agent, declared his determination 
not to serve the durbar in any capacity till Ma- 
hommed Meyan Sotah was dismissed. Hussain 
Meyan summoned up resolution to comply with 
the Mehtah’s request; but Mahommed Meyan 
Sotah showed no readiness to quit Bhooj, and even 
attempted, by threats and entreaties, to obtain an or¬ 
der forbidding the approach of Captain M‘Murdo. 
Finding, however, his efforts unsuccessful, he re¬ 
tired to Moondra, in the greatest indignation and 
disgust. Ibrahim Meyan, though equally hostile 
to the measures which had been adopted by his 
brother and Jugjeewan Mehtah, continued to lin¬ 
ger at the capital, watching the issue of events, 
and sunk in a vortex of profligacy and intrigue. 

Captain M‘Murdo was received by the authori¬ 
ties at Bhooj with respect, and found Jugjeewan 
Mehtah and Hussain Meyan apparently inclined 
to be on the most amicable terms with the British 
government. On the subject of Santilpore, which 
became a matter of discussion, they excused them¬ 
selves, by declaring that they considered the Cutch 
durbar had a right to send troops to that place ; 
the spirit of the treaty of 1809 being, as they un¬ 
derstood it, to prevent incursions into the territo¬ 
ries of the Honourable Companj^ and its allies, 
among whom they did not include the Nawaub of 


174 


SKETCH OF THE 


Rahidenpoore, to whom Santilpore belonged. They 
acknowledged that Futteh Mahommed had invited 
the infamous Nackwa Hussun to Bhooj after his 
plundering Prince Darab’s property, but denied 
the value of the effects seized ; there being, as they 
asserted, nothing more than a few Persian orna¬ 
ments, which they professed their willingness to 
restore. The pirate himself, they admitted, was 
in the service of Mahommed Meyan Sotah, from 
whom they agreed to demand him, and to deliver 
him up to the British government for punishment. 
They were further ready to give up the Sinde 
assassin, provided he could be discovered in Cutch ; 
and they also confessed the justice of our demands 
against Wagur, to chastise the plunderers of which 
province they offered to send a force, and invited 
Captain M‘Murdo to accompany it. Hussain 
Meyan freely acknowledged the imbecility of his 
administration, and expressed his readiness to ac¬ 
cept the mediation of the British government, 
whose good offices, he said, he had before intended 
to solicit in assisting to settle the disturbed state 
of Cutch, and to enable him to place the resources 
of the country in the hands of legitimate authority. 

In conformity with these proposals, which, 
though evasive in many respects, showed some 
proof of a desire to obtain the favour of the Eng¬ 
lish government, the durbar applied to the Moon- 
dra chief for the surrender of the pirate Hussun, 
and Hussain Meyan marched, 12th April, with 


4 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


175 


3000 men into Wagur, whither he was accompa¬ 
nied by Captain M‘Murdo. Mahommed Meyan 
Sotali’s laconic and cavalier reply to the applica¬ 
tion just alluded to, will demonstrate the temper 
of that chief, as well as his regard for truth—the 
pirate having been actually seen in his employment 
at the very time his letter was written—and his 
respect for the government of Cutch. It was in 
these terms : “ You mention the English IVTMurdo 
is arrived, let me know what he communicates. 
The Nackwa Hussun is at Curachee. ,, * On the 
advance of the above force into Wagur,many of the 
chieftains repaired to Hussain Meyan’s camp, and 
submitted to his authority. He established garri¬ 
sons at Palanswa Rapoor, &c. and the province 
ostensibly returned to a state of order ; but, as his 
means were too limited to secure an effectual and 
permanent tranquillity, he shortly after returned 
to Bhooj, and Captain M‘Murdo proceeded to 
Kattiwar, perfectly satisfied of the inability of the 
reigning powers in Cutch to restrain their trouble¬ 
some dependents. 

During this interval, Ibrahim Meyan, although 
he had accompanied the Wagur expedition, had 
continued a member of the Moondra party, and 
had never ceased to upbraid and condemn his 
brother for his adherence to what he termed the 
British interests. On the return of the latter to 
the capital, Ibrahim established himself at Kun- 


* A port in Sinde. 






176 


SKETCH OF THE 


kote, and encouraged the Belah and other plun¬ 
derers of Wagur by every means in his power ; 
finally, he declared open war against his brother 
and the Bhooj authorities, and, together with As- 
caran Sa, a troublesome and turbulent character, 
with whom he had allied himself and Mahommed 
Meyan Sotah, committed extensive depredations 
in the district of Anjar, and forcibly took posses¬ 
sion of the durbar, town, and fort of Futteh Ghud. 
While the eastern side of Cutch was thus a prey 
to rapine and disorder, Mandavie was also the 
scene of contention and bloodshed. Dhosul Vain 
and Malik Mahommed, at the instigation of the 
Moondra chieftain, made an attempt to wrest it 
from Sewiraj Hunsraj, their employer, but were 
detected and defeated. Civil war raged with all 
its fury; nor had the durbar any means to check 
or suspend its horrors. Three or four distinct fac¬ 
tions divided the country, all of whom joined only 
in one object, the plunder of the labouring and 
peaceable classes, who were reduced to beggary 
and starvation by their manifold extortions. The 
Wagur banditti, seizing the opportunity, extend¬ 
ed their ravages both at home and abroad. Sixty 
villages belonging to the Guicowar and Peishwa 
in Kattiwar, had now been destroyed; and as no 
effectual means were taken to prevent these out¬ 
rages, the British government at length intimated 
that their troops, and those of their allies, would 
no longer be restrained from following the ma- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


177 


rauders to their own haunts in Wagur ; that 
the Bhooj durbar would be liable to the charges 
of the equipment of the force to be so employed; 
and that certain instalments due to his Highness 
the Rao by the Jam of Nuwanuggur, would be 
applied to the indemnification of the losses already 
sustained. This intimation on the part of the 
English government, added to the successes of the 
Moondra party, which Hussain Meyan had no 
power to combat, produced a powerful effect on the 
weak and timid character of that chief. After some 
vacillation, he at length determined to throw himself 
on the mercy of his brother, to whom, through 
the influence of their mother, he was reconciled; 
and Cutch became once more at the disposal of 
men inimical to any thing like British influence; 
as proofs of which, the promise formerly made, 
that the pirate Hussun, who was now a prisoner 
at Bhooj, should be delivered up, was disregarded 
—the Sinde murderer was openly retained in the 
service of Ibrahim Meyan—and he and his party 
adopted every means in their power to show their 
indifference respecting the claims which had been 
preferred. 

The reunion of the brothers was a prelude to a 
cruel and barbarous tragedy. Jugjeewan Meh- 
tah’s habits of business rendered him at first ne¬ 
cessary to them as a minister ; but his offences 
against the party now in power had been too 
grievous to be forgiven ; and the former resolution 

M 


178 


SKETCH OF THE 


of assassinating him was soon renewed. His po¬ 
pularity with the Arabs had been for some time 
gradually on the decline. Most of them, in fact, 
had incurred large private debts to him, besides 
receiving considerable advances of pay from him as 
a public servant of the durbar, and they now view¬ 
ed him only in the light of a creditor from whose 
importunities they were anxious to be relieved. 
Under these circumstances, a confidential agent 
from Ibrahim Meyan, found no great difficulty in 
corrupting the popular Jemidar Ahya ; and the 
whole Arab body finally consented to withdraw 
their protection from Jugjeewan, in consideration 
of an acquittance of all sums of money which had 
been advanced to them from the public treasury, 
and a present of 6000 cories to each of their lead¬ 
ing officers. These proceedings were carried on 
with the most profound secrecy; and it is but cha¬ 
rity to suppose that Hussain Meyan was not made 
acquainted with them until too late to prevent 
their fatal effects. The ill-fated object of the con¬ 
spiracy himself did not entertain the slightest sus¬ 
picion of his danger, till the designs of his enemies 
were ripe for execution, and he saw his residence 
suddenly surrounded and attacked by a body of 
armed men under the command of Ibrahim Meyan 
in person, and Jaffeer Sotah, the brother of the 
Moondra chief. The presence of two such leaders, 
whom Jugjeewan had always known to be the 
most inveterate of his foes, could leave not a mo- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


179 


merit’s doubt on his mind as to the intentions of the 
assailants. In despair, therefore, he prepared to 
make the most determined resistance, and, sup¬ 
ported by his domestics, actually continued to baf¬ 
fle all attempts to effect an entrance into his house 
for six hours. At the end of that period, three 
pieces of ordnance having been brought to bear 
on the door, further defence was hopeless ; and he 
was inveigled into a capitulation by a promise 
sacredly given, that he might proceed without 
molestation to the palace of Futteh Mahommed’s 
sons to plead for his life. The assault had been 
so protracted, that Ibrahim Meyan himself had 
retired before this understanding was entered into; 
but a negro Jemidar of some importance in his 
service, named Ibrahim Seedee, who was present, 
and in whose honour Jugjeewan believed he could 
repose confidence, having volunteered to become 

security for the maintenance of the pledge, and 

*» 

even to escort him in safety to the presence of 
Hussain Meyan, the unfortunate Mehtah went 
out into the street without hesitation, and accepted 
his protection. He was then conducted amidst 
great tumult and confusion, to the gate of Hus¬ 
sain Meyail’s residence, where he was appealing 
to the populace, and imploring his persecutors to 
spare his life, when Ibrahim Meyan appeared at 
a window, and, scornfully taunting him with hav¬ 
ing tried to sell his country to the British, exult- 
ingly ordered him to be dispatched; a command 


180 


SKETCH OF THE 


which was instantly executed by Jaffeer Sotah 
and his attendants. 

Early in the morning of the same day, Ram- 
chunder Mehtah, the brother of Jugjeewan, on go¬ 
ing to pay his usual respects at the durbar, had 
been entrapped and strangled by order of Ibrahim 
Meyan, who alleged that he had committed suicide. 
Another brother, the sole remaining member of 
the family, named Kooberjee, who had long been 
in declining health, and who was probably spared 
by the assassins on account of his utter helpless¬ 
ness and insignificance, having witnessed the ruin 
of his house, determined not to survive it, and a 
few days after, caused himself to be buried alive, 
agreeably to a custom sometimes adopted by Brah¬ 
mins, of invoking the vengeance of the Almighty 
upon those who have oppressed them. The bloody 
work of the conspirators being completed, the 
Melitah’s house was given over to the pillage of 
the soldiery, and the most valuable part of his pro¬ 
perty was confiscated to the state, or rather to the 
private use of Hussain and Ibrahim Meyans, who 
took the administration of affairs into their own 
hands, assisted by Mehtahs Wullubjee and Luck- 
inadass. Jugjeewan Mehtah had been much re¬ 
spected at Bhooj, and his murder, under such cruel 
and afflicting circumstances, excited great disgust 
among the inhabitants. Hussain Meyan had taken 
no active or open part in it; and the odium ap¬ 
pears chiefly to have fallen on Mahommed Meyan 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


181 


Sotah, and his brother Jaffeer, who retired to 
Moondra, in order to escape the popular indigna¬ 
tion, as well as from a fear that the British govern¬ 
ment would interfere. 

The ferment occasioned by these tragical events 
had scarcely subsided when Ibrahim Meyan was as 
suddenly called to the tribunal of Heaven to an¬ 
swer for his offences. He had, in concert with his 
brother Luckmadass, and other associates, appointed 
a public day, in order to bestow rewards and dis¬ 
tinctions on his officers, and particularly on those 
who had assisted him in the murder of Jugjeewan 
Mehtah; and the whole assembled in great state 
at Hussain Meyan’s residence for the purpose. 
Amongst others who presented themselves, in the 
hope of obtaining notice, was Malum Sing, the 
Marwarry Jemidar, formerly mentioned as having 
betrayed Ibrahim Meyan’s intrigue with Kesser 
Bye to Futteh Mahoinmed, and who now urged 
a claim of many years’ service to the durbar for 
preferment. Ibrahim Meyan, whose feelings to¬ 
wards the man may be readily conceived, repulsed 
him with scorn, and the grossest abuse; which the 
Marwarry immediately resented, by stabbing him 
mortally on the spot. The scene that followed 
may be imagined. Hussain Meyan horror-struck, 
and expecting to he the next victim, rushed with 
Luckmadass into another apartment; but their 
apprehension was soon proved to be groundless, 
for the assassin was instantly cut in pieces, and 


182 


SKETCH OF THE 


it was never discovered that he had any confede¬ 
rates. 

It is generally understood that Malum Sing 
went to the levee expressly for the purpose of com¬ 
mitting the murder; and this opinion is support¬ 
ed by the fact of his having carried the weapon 
with which he perpetrated it carefully concealed 
under his clothes into the assembly. He had just 
before been relieved from duty at the palace, and 
he was supposed by many to have been instigated by 
the Rao; but Bharmuljee, who was then only about 
eighteen years of age, had previously shown no evil 
disposition; nor does there seem any good reason 
for adding this additional sin to his load of crimes. 
Persons who were well acquainted with the cha¬ 
racters of the parties, and who were eye-witnesses 
of the transaction, do not attribute it to the pro- 
vocation that was given at the moment; and Ibra¬ 
him Meyan's death may probably be referred to 
his having engaged in an intrigue with a female 
connected with the Marwarry Jemidar, whose re¬ 
venge was no doubt sharpened by the insults that 
were offered to him. Ibrahim Meyan had not 
attained the age of twenty-five years when he was 
assassinated. From his depraved habits, and total 
want of principle, it is scarcely to be supposed 
that his death would be regretted; but as he was 
a young man of great liberality, personal bravery, 
and address, and the only one of his family who 
inherited any portion of the talent of his father. 


HISTORY OF OUTCH. 


183 


the old friends of Futteh Mahommed bewailed his 
loss, as that of the representative, however un¬ 
worthy, of their Jemidar, and foresaw the imme¬ 
diate ruin of his house, whose power he himself, 
from a knowledge of the characters of his children, 
had prophesied would not long survive him. 

The murder of his brother excited the greatest 
consternation in Hussain Meyan’s mind. Unable 
to distinguish between friends and enemies, he 
resigned himself almost to despair, and, with the 
timidity natural to his disposition, remained shut 
up in his house, guarded by the Arabs. His sus¬ 
picions at first fell upon the Rao, whose palace he 
ordered to be attacked; and although his High¬ 
ness solemnly protested his innocence, a body of 
Arabs were permanently stationed in the durbar; 
while, in order to guard against future conspiracies, 
the Marwarry soldiery in Bhooj, amounting to 
two or three hundred men, were either massacred, 
or expelled from Cutch. All these events created 
a great sensation throughout the country. The 
gates of the capital were kept closed for many 
days, and scarcely any communication took place 
among the inhabitants. Hussain Meyan’s fears 
rendered him perfectly incapable of acting with 
calmness or propriety; and the government being 
without any efficient head, the Arab Jemidars 
usurped the whole authority, and for a short time 
conducted the affairs of the state, levying for 
their own use heavy fines and contributions. But- 


184 


SKETCH OF THE 


chow, Chowbaree, and Rhapoor, with several other 
towns, taking advantage of the imbecility of the 
government, declared their independence of Bhooj, 
and even applied for the support and protection 
of the British. After a time Hussain Meyan, 
who had never dared to appear in public since 
the assassination of his brother, sent to implore 
the assistance of Mahommed Meyan Sotah ; who, 
well aware, however, of his unpopularity, declin¬ 
ed visiting Bhooj on the plea of sickness, but ad¬ 
ded to the troubles of the country, by directing 
his retainers to plunder in every direction. Dur¬ 
ing this state of affairs, the Wagur freebooters 
continued their depredations, and the British go¬ 
vernment again reminded Hussain Meyan of their 
claims. His personal apprehensions, and the weak¬ 
ness of his administration, made him now rea¬ 
dily grasp at any chance of support; and he wil¬ 
lingly offered to send an agent to adjust all diffe¬ 
rences. 

But the incapacity of Hussain Meyan for go¬ 
vernment, and the despicable nature of his cha¬ 
racter, had of late become but too apparent. The 
troubles he had inflicted on the country were now 
so grievously felt, that the respectable part of the 
community determined to be relieved from a chief, 
at once odious and contemptible ; and the tide 
of popular opinion turned entirely in favour of 
Rao Bharmuljee, who had secretly been carrying 
on negociations with Sewiraj Hunsraj and the 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


185 


principal Jharejahs. Deputies soon arrived from 
Mandavie, expressing the readiness of the autho¬ 
rities there to acknowledge the Rao ; and Sewiraj 
himself, with Ascaran Sa and many of the chiefs, 
assembled troops in support of his cause. Hus¬ 
sain Meyan, whom his Arab Jemidars had in vain 
attempted to inspire with courage, readily yielded 
to the current; and when it became evident that 
his cause was unsupported, he made a virtue of ne¬ 
cessity, by entering into a compromise w T ith Bhar- 
muljee, who, on his consenting to leave Bhooj, 
gave him a grant of Anjar, Butchow, Badur- 
ghud, and Kunkote. He was then dismissed with 
an honorary dress, and proceeded to Anjar, whi¬ 
ther he was accompanied by all the Arab mercena¬ 
ries, none of whom the new government would on 
any account permit to remain at Bhooj. By these 
measures all opposition being terminated, the keys 
of the city were delivered, with every formality, to 
Rao Bharmuljee, who appointed Sewiraj Hunsraj 
and Ascaran Sa his ministers ; and the country, 
for the present, was restored to quietness. 

The British irovernment had awaited the issue 
of events at Bhooj, in the hope that a restoration 
of legitimate authority would lead to an adjust¬ 
ment of their demands. They now renewed their 
application to the Rao, and expressed their wil¬ 
lingness to receive envoys from his Highness ; 
but the measures of this prince soon showed how 
averse he was to the establishment of a good un- 


186 


SKETCH OF THE 


derstanding. The Cutch durbar had not hitherto 
been absolutely identified with the plunderers of 
Wagur ; but Bharmuljee settled the question, by 
openly complimenting Sirmanya, the most noto¬ 
rious of these, with a dress of honour; and he also 
adopted the violent step of compelling the agent of 
Captain M 4 Murdo to quit Bhooj, under the evasive 
pretence that he would employ Soonderjee Seojee, 
a horse-contractor for the Honourable Company at 
Mandavie, as the mediator with the British go¬ 
vernment. 

The tranquillity of Cutch was of short duration. 
The hereditary chieftain of Kunkote suddenly 
surprised that town, and expelled Hussain Meyan’s 
garrison ; Sewiraj Hunsraj and Ascaran Sa quar¬ 
relled before six weeks had elapsed, and the latter 
left Bhooj to join Mahommed Meyan Sotah, who 
had raised the standard of rebellion at Moondra, 
and was collecting troops from every quarter. 
The country was once more involved in faction 
and confusion. The Rao assembled a force and 
moved against Moondra, which he invested, at the 
same time compelling the authorities there to listen 
to terms. Mahommed Meyan Sotah engaged to 
surrender his town at the end of one month, pro¬ 
vided his Highness would immediately withdraw 
his army, and, in proof of his sincerity, he delivered 
up his brother, Jaffeer Meyan, as a hostage; but be¬ 
fore the stipulated period had elapsed, Jaffeer Mey¬ 
an contrived to escape to Moondra, and assisted his 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


187 


brother in retaining that place in defiance of the 
durbar. 

The government of Rao Bharmuljee soon be¬ 
came exceedinglyunpopular. His marriage, which 
took place on his return from Moondra, attracted 
crowds to Bhooj, who were treated by him and 
his public servants with great indignity. He 
evinced a strong and unaccountable aversion to 
the Jharejah chiefs, many of whom had been in¬ 
strumental in restoring him to the throne; and 
an unwarrantable attack he made on the chief of 
Assumbia, whose town he destroyed, and on whose 
family he imposed a large fine, gave great disgust 
to the whole of these noblemen. Unpopular as 
the Rao was in his own dominions, his ministers 
determined to raise him enemies from abroad. 
A British and Guicowar force had been ordered 
to reduce Jooriah in Kattiwar, and Sewiraj Huns- 
raj openly supplied the rebellious authorities of 
that place with assistance and ammunition. 

The easy and unexpected reduction of Jooriah 
embarrassed the Cutch government much, and 
opened the Rao’s eyes to the danger of his proceed¬ 
ings. He consequently determined, if possible, to 
make his peace, even thus late, with the British, 
and to atone for his offences. With this view he 
announced his intention of punishing the Wagur 
banditti, and marched into that district with a for¬ 
midable army. He reduced Planswa, Rhapoor, and 
Kanmeer, and likewise put to death the notorious 


188 


SKETCH OF THE 


plunderer Sirmanya, whom lie had before encou¬ 
raged and rewarded ; but it soon became evident 
that these measures had their origin in fear, not 
inclination, for he did not remain absent from 
Bhooj longer than fifteen days, and no effectual 
steps were taken to prevent the future incursions 
of the freebooters. It would almost appear that 
Sirmanya had been killed by chance, or contrary 
to the Rao’s wishes, as he dismissed his family, 
equally atrocious as himself, with promises of pro¬ 
tection. 

Rao Bharmuljee’s presence in Wagur suspended 
for a short time the operations of the banditti; but 
he had scarcely withdrawn his force, when their 
depredations were renewed with redoubled vigour. 
Captain lVrMurdo’s own camp was attacked, and 
much injury sustained by him personally, in the 
neighbourhood of Moorvee. In the space of a 
few months, one hundred and thirty-six villa¬ 
ges in Kattiwar had been plundered, forty thou¬ 
sand head of cattle had been carried off, and pro¬ 
perty to the amount of eight lacs of rupees da¬ 
maged and destroyed. In addition to all this, 
an expence had been incurred by the British and 
Guicowar governments of above ten lacs of rupees 
in equipping troops to check these unwarrantable 
proceedings. Forbearance had been misconstrued 
by the Bliooj durbar into inability ; and, as it was 
now certain that the Rao either wanted the power 
or the inclination to control his unruly subjects. 
Captain M'Murdo was instructed to make a spe- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


189 


cific demand of compensation for the past, and a 
guarantee against future incursions, together with 
the surrender of Sirmanya’s children, and satisfac¬ 
tion for the insults offered to the British govern¬ 
ment in having so long delayed, under frivolous 
pretences, to send an envoy to settle all disputes, 
as well as for the offensive manner in which the 
native agent had been forced to leave Bliooj. To 
these points an explicit answer was to be required 
within a given period ; and in order clearly to 
evince the intentions of the allied governments, 
an army composed of British and Guicowar troops, 
under the command of Colonel East and Wittul 
Row Dewanjee, was ordered to advance at the same 
time to the border of the Runn. 

Bliarmuljee permitted the specified period to e- 
lapse without sending any answer to these demands, 
although, a few days after, he addressed a letter to 
Captain JVPMurdo, couched in the most general 
terms, and without any allusion whatever to the 
articles in question. In consequence of this eva¬ 
sion, the combined troops crossed the Runn at 
Venasir, and advanced to Wandiah, the chief of 
which, and many others, immediately threw them¬ 
selves on the mercy of the allied governments. 
Proposals had previously been made by the Man- 
davie and Moondra authorities, both of which had 
now thrown off their subjection to Bharmuljee, 
and with them Captain JVPMurdo lost no time in 
entering into a communication, in order to prevent 


i 


190 SKETCH OF THE 

a reunion with the durbar. He addressed a letter 
to the Rao, expressing an eager desire that matters 
might be amicably settled, and still begging agents 
to be sent for the purpose. To the principal Jhare- 
jahs he issued proclamations calculated to inspire 
them with confidence, and explanatory of the in¬ 
tention of the British government, which, he assur¬ 
ed them, was resolved neither to interfere with 
their domestic concerns, nor to disturb their re¬ 
pose, so long as they remained quiet in their own 
domains, but merely, and amicably if possible, to 
obtain from the Cutch durbar satisfaction for the 
indignities which had been received, indemnifica¬ 
tion for past losses, and security against future de¬ 
predation. The most prudent measures were taken 
to prevent any interference with the inhabitants 
and villages on the line of march; and, by the time 
the force reached Butchow, the people had re¬ 
covered their confidence, and supplies were readily 
afforded. 

Meanwhile Rao Bharmuljee had taken no ef¬ 
fectual means, either by assembling a force, or by 
negotiation, to prevent the advance of the British 
army. He had hoped that some assistance would 
be afforded him by the Ameers of Sinde ; but the 
Bombay government had taken the precaution 
of previously explaining its intentions to their 
Highnesses, and had expostulated with them 
against any interference with the affairs of Cutch. 
As the crisis approached, he made an attempt to 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


191 


enter into an alliance with Sewiraj Hunsraj, Ma- 
liomrned Meyan Sotah, and some other chiefs who 
had combined against him, but without success. 
He also directed the Jharejahsto assemble at Bhooj, 
but a few only obeyed the summons, and these 
apparently with no warlike intentions. 

Colonel East’s force advanced to Bheemasir, 
within three marches of the capital and one of 
Anjar, without any show of opposition. The in¬ 
tention of Captain M‘Murdo had been to proceed di¬ 
rectly to Bliooj, and there to enter into such a treaty 
as would meet the wishes of his government; but 
this arrangement was entirely changed from the 
detection of one of the most treacherous and cow¬ 
ardly acts that ever was recorded. On the arrival 
of the army at Bheemasir, it was discovered that 
a large quantity of wheat, and it is said arsenic, 
had been thrown into the tank on which the 
troops chiefly depended for water; and information 
was at the same time received that all the wells 
in the direction of Bliooj were poisoned in a simi¬ 
lar manner. Although suspicions at first attached 
to Rao Bharmuljee, it was soon ascertained that 
the perpetrators of this atrocity were horsemen 
from Anjar, and that the more immediate agent 
was Hussain Meyan. Under these circumstan¬ 
ces, it became clear that the army ought not to 
proceed without due caution ; and as such a dis¬ 
position had been evinced, it was necessary, as a 
temporary measure, to take possession of some 


192 


SKETCH OF THE 


post, that would secure a constant communication 
with the friendly shores of Kattiwar. Hussain 
Meyan was accordingly called on to permit the 
occupation of Anjar, and its tributary fort of 
Toonah, on the sea side, by a British garrison; 
but as he objected to this proposal, the force ad¬ 
vanced, and a battery was erected against Anjar, 
which did not surrender until a breach had been 
rendered practicable. Hussain Meyan was allowed 
to remain unpunished, and has since lived in ob¬ 
scurity at Moorvee, chiefly on the charity of the 
Bhooj durbar. 

On the reduction of Anjar, which was imme¬ 
diately followed by that of Toonah, Captain 
M‘Murdo again addressed the Rao, explaining the 
cause and necessity of the measures which had 
been adopted, assuring him that the forts would 
only be held in trust till an accommodation should 
be concluded, and again urging him to send agents 
for the settlement of all disputes. On the day 
after the surrender of the towns, Maliommed 
Meyan Sotah made his submission in person at 
the British camp, and letters were received from 
the Rao, and Sewiraj Hunsraj, of a conciliatory 
nature. 

Under the impression that Bharmuljee’s occu¬ 
pation of the throne was considered an usurpation 
by the chiefs and inhabitants, as well, perhaps, as 
from some regard to the rights of legitimacy, 
Captain M‘Murdo had been instructed to ascertain 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


193 


the feelings of the Jharejahs towards Ladoba, and 
if these were favourable, to enter into a treaty 
with that prince as the lawful Rao of Cutch. No 
disposition unfavourable to Bharmuljee was, how¬ 
ever, evinced in any quarter, and it consequently 
only remained to commence the necessary nego- 
ciations with him. 

It was only on the arrival of the British army 
at Lackoond, within a few miles of the capital, 
that agents arrived from Bhooj expressing the 
willingness of their master to agree to the pro¬ 
posed terms. The Rao then delivered a bond with 
the security of the principal Jharejahs for twenty 
lacs of rupees in payment of all demands, besides a 
promise of two lacs of cories as a yearly tribute; 
and after several negociations, a treaty of amity 
and alliance was concluded between the govern-, 
inents, of which the principal articles, independ¬ 
ently of the compensation for past, and security 
against future, depredations, on the part of the 
durbar, were an engagement on our part to reduce 
Wagur, &c. to the subjection of the Rao, and the 
cession of the city and district of Anjar to the 
British government, in virtue of which, Captain 
M e Murdo remained at that place as collector and 
resident in Cutch. 


N 


194 


SKETCH OF THE 


SECTION III. 

FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY OF 

1816 , TO THE CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY 

OF 1819 . 

The terms of the new treaty were highly advan¬ 
tageous to the Rao Bharmuljee. His title to the 
throne, however dubious, was now acknowledged 
by the only power in India which could give it sta¬ 
bility ; Wagur was reduced under subjection by 
the British troops in the course of a few weeks; 
and a yearly assessment in his name, as lord 
paramount, was laid on its chiefs at the rate of 
forty cories for every plough. The refractory au¬ 
thorities of Mandavie, Moondra, Seesaghud, But- 
chao, &c. seeing the aspect of affairs, at once sub¬ 
mitted ; and Bharmuljee found his country for the 
first time free from open faction, and himself in 
undisputed sovereignty. 

Of the twenty lacs of rupees claimed in name of 
indemnification and expenses, the British govern- 


HISTORY OF CUTCII. 


195 


ment shortly afterwards remitted their own por¬ 
tion, amounting to above eight hundred thousand, 
together with the yearly tribute of two lacs of cories; 
a liberality which at first equally surprised and de¬ 
lighted the Rao, who found no great difficulty in 
raising the remaining balance by fines on his refrac¬ 
tory chieftains, and demands, under the title of vo¬ 
luntary contributions, from those who had long en¬ 
joyed the revenues of the country. Mahommed 
Meyan Sotah was the only one of these who declared 
his inability to afford pecuniary assistance; but the 
Bhooj government eventually found means to ob¬ 
tain from him nearly six lacs of cories. 

Tranquillity being thus restored in Cutch, the Bri¬ 
tish troops, with the exception of a small garrison 
stationed at Anjar, evacuated the country; and the 
durbar was left free to adopt its own measures. 
Luckmadass Wullubjee, already spoken of as the 
confederate of Hussain Meyan, became minister, 
with the assistance of Nuthoo Mehtah ; and the 
military advisers of the Rao were Jharejahs Noug- 
hunjee of Vinjan, and Pragjee of Kotree. None 
of these men were favourably inclined to the Bri¬ 
tish interests, nor could much confidence be re¬ 
posed in them in any point of view. Luckmadass, 
a proud and narrow-minded Brahmin, though a 
man of talent, had been accused as an accessary 
in the murder of Jugjeewan Mehtah, and Jharejah 
Pragjee was known to be faithless and treacher¬ 
ous. Luckily for Bharmuljee, however, he found 


196 


SKETCH OF THE 


an able and sincere adviser in his sister Kesser 
Bhye, a young lady who is said to have possessed 
considerable ability, and who, for a time, was able 
to guide his conduct by the maxims of prudence and 
moderation. 

The British interference in Cutch had given 
great offence, and occasioned much apprehension 
to the Ameers of Sinde, whose jealousy and fears 
were not allayed by the repeated explanations 
they had received from Bombay. They immedi¬ 
ately despatched messengers to Bhooj, ostensibly 
to negociate the payment of a sum of money due 
at Hyderabad by a merchant of Luckput, but, in 
reality, to intrigue with the Bao ; and represented 
the circumstance of our having sent a force into 
Cutch, in the most exaggerated light to their so¬ 
vereign lord Mahmood Shah, the king of Cabul, 
whom they entreated to remonstrate with the su¬ 
preme government of India. Intelligence was 
soon after received at Bombay of preparations for 
the assemblage of a force at Shikarpoor ; and vari¬ 
ous rumours were afloat of the march of the Af¬ 
ghani! army towards Sinde. But the Sindian am¬ 
bassadors, on their arrival at Bhooj, soon divulged 
their real object. They represented to the durbar 
the danger of forming a connexion with neighbours 
so powerful as the British ; and they even went so 
far as to insinuate that, in case of necessity, the 
army of the Ameers was at the disposal of RaoBhar- 
muljee. No means were left untried to break up the 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


197 


alliance; but the Cutch government, fortunately 
for itself, and whatever may have been its real 
feelings, was proof against their solicitations ; and 
the vakeels returned to Hyderabad without having 
gained any apparent object. 

The mission from Sinde to the Bhooj durbar 
was soon followed by a remonstrance from the 
king of Cabul himself to the governor-general of 
India ; in which, after expressing his conviction, 
that the invasion of the Rao’s territories was un¬ 
sanctioned by his lordship, his Majesty proceeds 
to claim for himself an unknown and never-before- 
heard-of, sovereignty over Cutch, and to require the 
renunciation of all interference with that country 
as a component portion of the Afghaun dominions. 
A letter from the vizier Futteh Khan, which ac¬ 
companied the king’s communication, was still more 
explicit. It stated, that “ news at this time has 
been brought to the royal feet, that some Ferin- 
gees of the English tribe, having more boldness 
than discretion, have shown a disposition to create 
disturbance, and have extended the hand of en¬ 
croachment to the country of Cutch, which is the 
frontier district of the royal dominions. On hear¬ 
ing of this, the mind of his majesty was disturbed 
with anger, and his royal mandate was issued, that 
letters should be despatched to all the Nazims of 
the provinces of the kingdom, enjoining them to 
be prepared, and to expect the receipt of further 
ordei's.” The vizier proceeds to say, that, “ if the 


198 


SKETCH OF THE 


people in question should not be restrained, and 
if intelligence of a similar occurrence should again 
reach the king, that two lacs of Dooranies and 
Elats, four dustahs of Emacks and Tymoorias, 
Huzarahs as numerous as ants and grasshoppers, 
the tribes of Ghilges, and Andarees, and Tonkas, 
and Makoos, and Khookhanies, and Kohistanies; 
the armies composed of the Khusselbashees, and 
Moghuls, and Kanwaries, and Toorkalans, and 
Shurnwaries Husmud Kliatick, and the Bungoes 
great and small, and theDaoodyes, and tlieRohaus, 
and the Mahmoodzyes, and the Yoozafzyes both 
of the hills and of the plains, and the men of Na- 
gaon and Am an, and the Nuwab Suboobund Khan, 
ruler of Kutch Walliah, and the governor of the 
Derahs, and of Mooltan, and the army of Beloches, 
Burohooe, and Muzara, and Rokunsood Dowlah, 
and Ameersood Dowlah, with the Beloclie army, 
and a train of artillery, and a Shaha Khaneh,—all 
these forces, numerous as the waves of the sea, 
having collected agreeably to the royal orders, will 
surround these people, and annihilate them, and 
friendship will be at an end. It is best, therefore, 
that you should prohibit them, and restrain them 
from these improper proceedings.” 

This high-sounding epistle, together with the 
formidable muster-roll of his Majesty’s forces, 
was not likely to excite much alarm in the mind 
of the Marquis of Hastings, who considered it, or, 
at all events, determined to treat the whole as for- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


199 


gery. His lordship addressed a friendly reply to 
the vizier, in which he declared his conviction that 
the communications from Cabul were “ the fabri¬ 
cation of persons ill-disposed to both states, who 
sought to embroil them with a view to obtain some 
benefit to themselvesreminded him that Cutch 
had “ never at any time formed part of the do¬ 
minions of the Afghaun monarchy ;” and shortly 
explained the object of the British interference; 
adding, at the same time, that he necessarily be¬ 
lieved the letter fictitious, since he was too well 
apprized of the “ knowledge, experience, and saga¬ 
city of Futteh Khan,” to imagine that he could 
conceive the British government would for a mo¬ 
ment be influenced by any display of force, “ and 
that his information was too enlarged not to know, 
that though it does not misuse its strength by 
wantonly trespassing on its neighbours, it has 
never been attacked without destroying those who 
unjustly assailed it.” 

The state of affairs in Cabul was, however, some¬ 
what changed before his lordship’s reply reached 
that kingdom, and the messenger who conveyed it, 
after having been detained several weeks as a pri¬ 
soner, by a detachment of Runjeet Sing’s army, 
overtook the vizier of Peshavur ready to take the 
field against the Sikhs, who were threatening the 
frontier at Attock. Futteh Khan, with that adroit¬ 
ness which native diplomatists generally display, 
immediately resolved to turn the letter to account, 


200 


SKETCH OF THE 


and with the view of impressing his enemies with 
sentiments favourable to his own interests, order¬ 
ed a salute to be fired on its reception ; at the same 
time proclaiming aloud through his camp that de¬ 
spatches had been received from the friend of the 
Cabul government, the governor-general of India. 

To the Marquis of Hastings the vizier replied 
in the most hyperbolical terms of oriental meta¬ 
phor ; assuring Captain M‘Murdo, who had been 
the medium of communication, that “ the sweet 
and delicious perfume of his lordship’s rose-scent¬ 
ed letter had ascended, with the most exquisite 
sensations, to the innermost recesses of his brain 
and that, from the moment he had perused it, he 
felt the excess of his regard for the British govern¬ 
ment, between which, and the state of Cabul, he 
trusted that the “ carpet of friendship would ever 
be spread in the palace of affection.” He desired 
the courier to inform his employer, that, in the 
prosecution of his operations against the Sikhs, he 
not only did not expect an enemy in the English, 
but looked for their support; that in due time 
he meant to bring Sinde to its former state of de¬ 
pendence on Cabul; and that, if they had really 
any views towards that country, he would readily 
enter into them, and afford his assistance. To 
complete the farce, he gravely professed ignorance 
of the letters which had been received at Calcutta 

9 

and declared, that he could only account for them 
by supposing, that a Sindian agent had procured 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


201 


by bribery, impressions of his own and other offi¬ 
cial seals, from a faithless secretary who had been 
left at the capital of Cabul. 

The Cutch government had, in the meantime, 
betrayed its utter unworthiness of the confidence 
and liberality of the British. Strange as it may 
seem, even the releasing it from a bond of so many 
lacs of rupees, excited the suspicion of its members; 
and the effects of the Sindian intrigues were soon 
visible. The increased power of the Rao only 
served to swell his arrogance and pride. During 
an occasional absence of the resident, the durbar 
determined to seize on Toona Bunder; and for 
this purpose, the Arab mercenaries were recruit¬ 
ed at Bhooj, in express opposition to the articles 
of the late treaty. But these treacherous de¬ 
signs were crushed in their birth by the vigilance 
and decision of Captain M‘Murdo, who called in 
the assistance of some troops from Okamundel, on 
the Kattiwar side of the gulf, and insisted on the 
immediate reduction of the newly raised levies. His 
demands, after a great deal of evasion, were tardily 
complied with ; and, indeed, much indifference was 
shown to every proposal emanating from the Bri¬ 
tish government. The Khosas, a predatory tribe 
inhabiting Parkur to the north of Wagur, had at 
this period commenced their marauding incursions; 
but nothing could induce the Rao to defend his own 
territories from these freebooters, much less to en- 


202 


SKETCH OF THE 


ter into any arrangement for the protection of those 
of his allies. 

Evil and ungrateful as was this disposition on 
the part of the durbar, matters gradually became 
much worse. Luckmadass and his party, though 
indifferent, had never wished to come to an abso¬ 
lute rupture with the British government; but 
their influence speedily declined, and the Rao 
found far worse counsellors. He became addicted 
to constant intoxication and the lowest sensuality, 
and selected, as the associates of his pleasures, men 
of the meanest and most depraved characters, 
whose interest and object it appears to have been 
to instil into his mind constant suspicions of his 
new allies, and of their representative, Captain 
M‘Murdo. Among these, as particularly worthy 
of execration, we may here mention Moliunjee 
Tucker, a wretch, who may with justice be called 
the evil genius of Rao Bharmuljee, and to whom 
all the subsequent misfortunes of that unhappy 
prince are mainly to be attributed. 

The consequence of all this was just what might 
have been foreseen. The whole power fell into 
the hands of the Raos profligate favourites ; and 
every act of tyranny and injustice that could feed 
his avarice, or minister to his guilty enjoyments, 
was daily sanctioned. The very influence of 
the British government, by which it was insinu¬ 
ated, and generally believed, he would be support¬ 
ed under all circumstances, enabled him to obtain 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 




enormous sums, as loans, from the merchants and 
other persons of property; and when this re¬ 
source failed, every species of extortion was prac¬ 
tised. The revenues for eight months in advance 
were seized from the cultivators of the soil, and 
twenty lacs of cories were exacted in fines from the 
household officers and managers of the districts, 
to be dissipated in the grossest debauchery. Bhar- 
muljee himself was almost never seen outside his 
apartments ; he paid no attention whatever to 
business, and daily became more odious to his peo¬ 
ple. He debauched the daughter of Futteh Ma- 
hommed, in revenge, as he declared, for Ibrahim 
Meyan’s similar conduct to his sister; and women 
of all classes were publicly seized in the streets, 
to be dragged to the palace, and there despoiled 
of their ornaments and their virtue. No man pos¬ 
sessed of any wealth was safe in the country. The 
Jharejahs, with scarcely an exception, retired to 
their own estates, and never visited Bhooj ; and the 
ministers themselves, formerly so averse to British 
influence, having now lost both their property and 
power, entreated the interposition of Captain 
M‘Murdo, as the only means of saving their lives. 
That officer was not by his instructions authoriz¬ 
ed to interfere ; but, through his influence, he 
was enabled to obtain the appointment, as a mem¬ 
ber of the administration, of Ruttunsie Jutta, the 
nephew of Soondurjee Seojee, long a faithful and 
meritorious servant of the East India Company, 


204 


SKETCH OF THE 


in the hope that his talents and conciliatory man¬ 
ners might gain him such an ascendancy over Bhar- 
muljee, as gradually to withdraw him from his 
evil habits and associates. 

The resident’s own efforts were directed to the 
same-object, but unhappily proved fruitless; nor 
did Ruttunsie unfortunately ever obtain sufficient 
influence to secure so desirable an end. The Rao’s 
depraved habits and their disastrous effects became 
daily more aggravating, and at length ended in a 
crime which showed that all principle and huma¬ 
nity had been discarded and forgotten. Ladoba, 
the unfortunate son of Bhyjee Bawa, since the 
elevation of his cousin to the throne, had remain¬ 
ed as a kind of state prisoner in the durbar; where, 
however, he was not rigidly guarded, but even fre¬ 
quently admitted as a companion at the debauched 
orgies of the Rao. His Highness and he had 
passed an evening together in drinking, and parted 
at a late hour with mutual professions of friend¬ 
ship ; yet five minutes had scarcely elapsed before 
Ladoba was attacked by some armed men in pas¬ 
sing through one of the courts of the Palace, and 
brutally assassinated. 

The Rao attempted for a time to deny his par¬ 
ticipation in this cruel and treacherous transaction, 
which he declared to have been an unauthorized act 
of his guards, and even dissembled so far as to seize 
a musket and threaten to shoot the principal as¬ 
sassin ; but it was soon discovered that the mur- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


205 


der had been committed by bis express orders, 
issued at the moment Ladoba left him, and that 
be had himself witnessed it from a window. No 
punishment was inflicted on the perpetrators of 
the atrocity ; and the chief of these, an Arab Ja¬ 
in idar, named Abdool Kareem, was not only not 
removed from his situation, but was promoted in 
rank, and received many additional marks of his 
master’s favour. Three months had not elapsed, 
however, before the hand of justice overtook this 
miscreant; for, a cow having been killed, in the 
streets of Bhooj, by a soldier under his command, 
whom he attempted to shield from the punish¬ 
ment due to such an outrage on the prejudices of 
the Hindoos, he was put to death, together with 
the offender, by order of the Rao. 

The murder of Ladoba was an act of wanton 
and uncalled-for tyranny. No provocation had 
been given on his part, nor could his claims to the 
throne, now laid aside and forgotten, interfere 
with the Rao’s possession of it, sanctioned as it 
was by the solemn decision of the Jharejah bro¬ 
therhood, and the countenance of the British go¬ 
vernment. We might in charity be inclined to 
attribute the assassination to frenzy proceeding 
from intoxication, did it not appear from Bliar- 
muljee’s subsequent conduct that his mind was 
the prey of every suspicion, however unjust or 
ridiculous, and that his cruelty to Ladoba’s family 


206 


SKETCH OF THE 


did not cease even with the murder of his unfor¬ 
tunate relative. 

This barbarous proceeding on the part of the Rao 
occasioned much disgust in Cutch. Many of the 
Jharejah chiefs began now, when too late, to re¬ 
gret their indifference to the better-founded claims 
of Ladoba to the throne ; most of them loudly ex¬ 
pressed their abhorrence of his murder; and a feud 
broke out between the chieftains of Vinjan and 
Sandan in the Abbrassa, which may be traced to 
that cause. Bharmuljee’s hatred against the Bhy- 
auds had not been diminished by recent events, 
and he readily seized the opportunity of taking a 
part in the quarrel, and of levying a heavy fine on 
Sandan ; an act of oppression, which, as will after¬ 
wards appear, was a main reason of his losing his 
throne. 

The intelligence of these events reached Bom¬ 
bay, together with an affecting appeal from the 
father of the widow of the murdered prince, a 
petty chief in Kattiwar, who lived under the pro¬ 
tection of the British government, and who im¬ 
plored it, by every principle of mercy and justice, 
to remonstrate with the Rao. He stated, that his 
daughter, now seven months advanced in pregnan¬ 
cy, had been placed in strict confinement at Bhooj, 
and entreated that she should be removed from that 
city and deli vered over to his own protection; repre¬ 
senting as an additional reason for this measure, 
that two children, formerly born to Ladoba, had been 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


207 


put to death on the plea of their being females, 
and that no other fate could be looked for to the 
expected infant and its unfortunate mother. In¬ 
structions were in consequence issued to Captain 
M‘Murdo, to express to the Rao the deep regret 
of the British government, that so horrid a deed 
should have been committed at his court—an act 
which must in some degree reflect on the govern¬ 
ment which supported him by its friendship; to 
desire the punishment of the assassins ; and to re¬ 
quire, as the only means of atonement, his atten¬ 
tion and regard to the widow and her expected 
offspring. Letters were at the same addressed to 
the Jharejah chiefs, intimating the expectation of 
the honourable the Governor in Council, that the 
widow and her child would be treated with kind¬ 
ness and respect, and requesting them to write to, 
and to visit, the Rao, and to use their influence 
with him to secure so charitable a purpose. 

This representation was viewed by Rao Bhar- 
muljee with the greatest jealousy and distrust. 
He declared that the question was one entirely of 
a domestic nature, such as could admit of no fo¬ 
reign interference ; and plainly intimated, that the 
further mention of it would lead to an open rup¬ 
ture. He immediately recalled his army from the 
Abbrassa, where it was still employed; augmented 
his troops in other quarters; and proceeded to 
make preparations of a nature quite at variance 
with the conduct of a friendly and pacific state. 


208 


SKETCH OF THE 


The question of demanding the restoration of Anjar 
on all sums being paid, was agitated in the durbar ; 
and a plan was proposed to surprise that town, by 
introducing a body of armed men in a number of 
grass carts. The native British agent at Bhooj 
was treated in a manner little short of contempt; 
and every thing showed that the Kao wanted the 
ability, rather than the inclination, to proceed to 
open hostility. 

The levies which had been collected were chief¬ 
ly sent into Wagur, under the pretence of punish¬ 
ing the Khosas of Parkur ; but enough had been 
seen of the Rao’s disposition, to induce the resi¬ 
dent to call for reinforcements to the garrison of 
Anjar. A British regiment accordingly crossed 
the Runn from Guzerat; and application was made 
to the durbar for assistance in the way of supplies 
during its march. This request was not only re¬ 
fused, but the Rao ordered his troops under arms, 
prepared twenty-five pieces of field-artillery, and 
every arrangement was made to march, when the 
expedition was unexpectedly countermanded; the 
fumes of intoxication having evaporated, or his 
Highness having been deterred by the entreaty of 
some one remaining friend to his interests. On 
the approach of the battalion to Anjar, he station¬ 
ed a body of troops ten miles in advance of Bhooj, 
and obstructed all communication between the two 
cities ; but these were withdrawn a few days after 


HISTORY OF CUTCII. 


209 


on the remonstrance of the resident, and through 
the influence of Ruttunsie. 

Meanwhile the conduct of Rao Bharmuljee ap¬ 
peared in a different light to the court of Hydera¬ 
bad : and that extraordinary government, on hear¬ 
ing of the murder of Ladoba, sent an ambassador 
to Bhooj to condole with him on the death of his 
cousin; to expatiate on the friendly disposition of 
the Ameers ; and to offer him aid against any of 
the Jharejah chiefs who might prove refractory. 
Exaggerated reports had reached Sinde of the do¬ 
mestic disturbances inCutch; and their Highnesses, 
from a fear that the Rao would again request the 
assistance of the English, determined, if possible, 
to keep these, their constant object of dread, at a • 
distance, by offering the necessary support them¬ 
selves. The envoy was received, and treated with 
great respect; but the durbar declined the assist¬ 
ance of the Ameers, purchased, as it is now be¬ 
lieved it must have been, by the cession of the 
fortress of Luckput Bunder, on the eastern branch 
of the Indus, which, from its vicinity to their own 
frontier, had long been a desirable object of acqui¬ 
sition to the Sindians. 

The Rao continued his reckless course of tyran¬ 
ny and dissipation. Excluding himself from the 
society of all except the dissolute companions of 
his pleasures, he was alike indifferent to the stings 
of conscience, and the sufferings of his subjects. 
A glimpse into the interior of the palace at this 


o 


210 


SKETCH OF THE 


period is afforded by a letter which the widow of 
Ladoba contrived to send to her friends through 
the medium of a slave girl; and in which she de¬ 
scribes Rao Bharmuljee as having determined to 
violate her person, and murder her infant. The 
latter was saved through the entreaties of the 
minister Luckmadass, but the fate of the unfortu¬ 
nate mother has never been properly ascertained. 
Cutch was now fallen into as miserable a state as 
it had been in during the worst times of the mis- 
government of Rao Raydhim. Open rebellion and ■ 
faction were only prevented by a dread of incur¬ 
ring the vengeance of the British government, to 
which the Rao’s hatred and dislike daily increas¬ 
ed ; and he was so infatuated, as to allow these 
feelings to evince themselves on every occasion. 
He never spoke of Captain JVTMurdo but in terms 
of the grossest abuse ; and, whenever intoxication 
supplied him with sufficient courage or candour, 
his designs against Anjar were loudly boasted of. 
His actions, moreover, in some measure, kept pace 
with his declarations. He put an end to the trade 
of the merchants of Anjar, by laying such duties 
on the cotton bought by them within his territo¬ 
ries, as to render it impossible for them to send it 
to Toonah Bunder; and, to complete the measure 
of folly, he prohibited vessels belonging to any other 
port from engaging in their service. 

These aggressions were not permitted to proceed 
without remonstrance on the part of the resident. 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


211 


He had before taken various opportunities to en¬ 
treat the Rao to discard his profligate habits and 
advisers. He now, with a degree of courage and 
decision equally creditable,—at a time, too, when 

every thing foreboded treachery, and when he had 

/ , 

been privately apprized of intentions to murder 

him,—paid a visit to the capital, and personally 

warned Bharmuljee of the danger and folly of his 

conduct, and of its inevitable consequences. The 

particulars of Captain JVTMurdo’s interviews at 

the durbar have been related to me by the late 

Major Noble, an officer who accompanied him ; 

and I have since been able to learn the real in- 

• 

tentions of the Rao from persons then in his ser¬ 
vice. All accounts concur in stating, that he had 
given his consent to Tukkur Mohunjee for the 
assassination of the resident; and that it was onlv 
when that gentleman appeared in the durbar, that 
his resolution happily failed him, and the project¬ 
ed atrocity was countermanded. No respect, how¬ 
ever, was shown to the resident or his suite on 
their visits to the durbar; on the contrary, they 
were jostled by the troops and attendants as they 
passed through the courts of the palace; their sa¬ 
lutations were not even returned ; and the popu¬ 
lace appear to have been instructed, or, at all 
events, permitted, to assail them with ribaldry and 
abuse. The Rao himself was found intoxicated 
on every occasion of Captain M‘Murdo’s waiting 
upon him. He showed himself indifferent to every 


212 


SKETCH OF THE 


proposal which was made to him, and contented 
himself with flatly denying ever having given cause 
of offence. To a proposition to reduce the troops, . 
agreeably to an article in the treaty, he turned a 
deaf ear ; and the resident left Bliooj without hav¬ 
ing gained any one object. 

Discontent and anarchy had now reached their 
height in this devoted province. Nutthoo Metha 
and others of the ministers fled, as the only means 
of saving their lives; and Luckmadass and his 
party became entirely favourable to the introduc¬ 
tion of the British influence. The Bao’s interfer¬ 
ence with Sand an, and an attempt he made to im¬ 
pose a tribute on the Jharejah chiefs as a body, 
gave great dissatisfaction to the Bhyauds, who ad¬ 
dressed a letter to the Bombay government, in 
• which they set forth that they had never been in 
the habit of making pecuniary payments, and en¬ 
treated assistance, in the event of the durbar’s 
attempting to enforce its unjust claims; finally, 
they declared their conviction, that the interposi¬ 
tion of British authority was absolutely necessary 
for a thorough reformation in the affairs of Cutcli. 
The Bombay government did not consider itself 
called on to interfere in a quarrel between the Jha- 
rejahs and their sovereign, whose claim to the 
crown they themselves had so recently acknow¬ 
ledged ; nor did it wish to take any decided mea¬ 
sures, till the Rao’s conduct should be such as to 
render actual hostility inevitable. This soon occur- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


213 


red ; for Bharmuljee, who had been daily becom¬ 
ing more and more infatuated, at length formed 
the resolution of attacking, by surprise, the town of 
Anjar, over some of the villages attached to which 
he had previously tried to assume an unwarranta¬ 
ble degree of authority. With this view, he sum¬ 
moned all persons holding lands of the durbar by 
military tenure, including Meyanahs, to Bliooj ; 
and marched to Lackhoond with five thousand 
men, and eleven pieces of cannon. Before adopt¬ 
ing this step he had, partly by promises of future 
forbearance towards them, and partly by intimi¬ 
dation, induced several of the Jharejalis to accom¬ 
pany his army with their quotas of troops, or a 
portion of them. 

The Rao attempted to disguise his real designs, 
by intimating to the resident his intention to move 
into Wagur to punish his refractory subjects in 
that province; though this pretence was of itself 
rendered glaringly improbable, from his having 
just previously recalled all his garrisons from that 
quarter. Preparations, being made at Anjar to 
repel attack, be was forced to relinquish his views 
on that place, but he determined to adopt another 
mode of insulting the British government, and of 
showing his disregard of the treaty he had entered 
into. He suddenly marched against Arrysier, a 
town in the eastern extremity of Cutch, the chief 
of which was then residing at Anjar, under the 
protection of the resident, and engaged through 


214 


SKETCH OF THE 


his mediation in the amicable settlement of some 
disputes between himself and the durbar. Cap¬ 
tain M‘Murdo remonstrated in the most forcible 

I 

manner with the Rao on the injustice of his con¬ 
duct; reminded him that the Honourable Company 
had become, in virtue of the treaty, the mediator 
between him and the Wagur Jemidars—that Kil¬ 
lian Sing, the chief of Arrysier, had been called 
to Anjar, at his Highness’s own request, to adjust 
all differences; and ended his communication in 
these words: “ Should you be determined in de¬ 
stroying Arrysier, be guided by your own plea¬ 
sure ; but in so doing, there will be no distinction 
from entirely throwing off all connexion with the 
British government. 

This intimation passed unheeded by the Rao, 
who, contrary to every advice except that of Tuk- 
kur Mohunjee, and his confederates, continued to 
carry on the siege of Arrysier ; and it was only 
after the expiration of two months, when he found 
that fort likely to baffle all his attempts, that he 
again thought of adopting a conciliatory tone to¬ 
wards Captain M‘Murdo. He then addressed a 
letter to that officer, filled with general expressions 
of friendship towards himself and his government, 
without referring in any way to the communica¬ 
tions made to him regarding his late proceedings ; 
hut this step, could it at any time have been effec¬ 
tual, was now too late : for the treaty between 
the governments had in the interim been sus- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


215 


pended; and the Marquis of Hastings had declared 
Rao Bharmuljee a public enemy, and had given 
instructions to proceed to the extremity of war 
against him. The sole object of his lordship had 
been to effect the establishment of a government 
in Cutch, disposed to maintain the relations with 
the British power in India, fixed by the treaty of 
1816 ; and as it was hopeless to expect this from a 
prince of Rao Bharmuljee’s character and conduct, 
orders were issued to accept the spontaneous and 
long proffered co-operation of the Jharejahs for 
his dethronement, as well as to request that body of 
noblemen to elevate to the musnud whomsoever 
they considered the lawfful heir to that dignit}^. 
To give full effect to these instructions, a British 
army was forthwith assembled, under the com¬ 
mand of Sir William Grant Keir, at Anjar, where 
it was joined by Visrajee, the two Pragjees, Al¬ 
ly aj ee, and Myaminyee, the five principal Jhare- 
jah chiefs in Cutch, who expressed their readiness 
and anxiety to co-operate in the measures to be 
adopted. 

The Rao, who had during this interval enter¬ 
ed into a compromise with the chief of Arrysier, 
quickly returned to Bhooj, where he was seized 
with a violent illness. He was consequently 
unable himself to make any preparations, or give 
orders in person ; but his partizans and favourites 
collected a considerable force ; and on the ap¬ 
proach of the British army to the capital, some 


216 


SKETCH OF THE 


skirmishing took place. Captain IVPMurdo then 
intimated to Bharmuljee the intention of his go¬ 
vernment to organize anew the affairs of Cutch, 
in concert with the Jharejah Byaud ; and called 
on him either to stand by the consequences of re¬ 
sistance, or to surrender himself, promising, in 
the event of his adopting the latter alternative, 
that he should meet with safety and consideration. 
This proposal was not attended to till the Hill- 
Fort of Bhorjeeah, which overlooks the city of 
Bhooj, was taken by escalade on the following day ; 
upon which, through the negociation of the minis¬ 
ter, Luckmadass, Rao Bharmuljee was brought to 
the tent of the resident, and placed under a guard 
of British troops. Every respect was paid to him* 
consistently with the safety of his person, and 
the kindest attention shown to his health, which, 
from constant intemperance, and his recent indis¬ 
position, was now so completely broken, that he 
was scarcely able to walk or articulate. 

A few days after his surrender, Rao Bharmul¬ 
jee was formally deposed, and placed in a palace 
built by Futteh Maliommed, which was selected 
for his residence. The Jharejah chiefs were then 
left entirely to themselves to choose his successor; 
and it was generally expected that the election 
would have been in favour of the infant son of 
the murdered Prince Ladoba; but, strange as it 

may seem, after a perusal of these pages, the only 
_ • 

son of Bharmuljee, a child of three years of age, re- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


217 


ceiveil the unanimous votes of the Bhyaud, and was 
accordingly raised to the throne by the name of Rao 
Dessul. The minister, Luckmadass Metah, is under¬ 
stood to have secured, bv his influence, this decision 
in favour of the offspring of his fallen master; an 
act of disinterestedness and forgiveness of injuries, 
which, if true, is highly creditable, when it is re¬ 
collected that his own life was often in imminent 
danger from the violence and cruelty of the Rao, 
and that his property had been seized by the orders 
of that now unhappy prince. But Luckmadass, 
and many others with whom I have conversed on 
this topic, appear even then to have viewed Bhar- 
muljee rather as the weak and infatuated minion 
of a base and profligate party, from which it was 
impossible to detach him, than as a man by na¬ 
ture cruel and tyrannical ; and the minister’s hos¬ 
tility against him seems to have been much soft¬ 
ened at the crisis of his fall. Necessary as was 
his dethronement, several of the Jharejahs, acting 
from the same impression, still wished, after that 
decided step, that the government should be carried 
on in his name ; and when they found that the pro¬ 
posal was objected to, they evinced their respect for 
his failings and misfortunes, by entreating that 
kindness should be shown him in his confinement, 
and that the succession should remain in his family. 
The election of the Bhyaud proved in the end 
more fortunate than if it had fallen on the weakly 
child of Ladoba, (whom, however, they declared 


218 


SKETCH OF THE 


the next heir to Dessuljee, in the event of his not 
living to have issue,) as he died a few weeks after, 
and the race of Bhyjee Bawa,the legitimate branch 
of the royal family of Cutch, became extinct. * 
The next requisite step towards the settlement 
of affairs, was the appointment of a regency, to 
carry on the government during the minority of 
his Highness Rao Dessul; and the Jharejahs were 
again requested to nominate a sufficient number 
of persons for the purpose. Their choice fell on 
Jharejahs Visrajee of Roha, and Pretrajee of Nan- 
gurcha, the two most powerful chiefs in Cutch, 
Oodowjee, a Rajgoor Brahmin, the minister Luck- 
madass Wullubjee, and Sett Ruttunsie Jetta. The 
name of the British resident was also included ; 
but as the object of the Governor-General was to 
render Cutch, as far as possible, an independent 
state, the arrangement was at first objected to; and 
it was only through the earnest solicitations of the 
Jharejah Bliyaud, combined with those of the ex¬ 
isting members of the regency, that his lordship 
at length consented to the appointment of Cap¬ 
tain M‘Murdo as president of the latter body. 

The measures which had been adopted at Bhooj 
gave satisfaction generally to all classes throughout 
the country; and no town evinced any unwilling¬ 
ness to acknowledge the new Rao and the authority 
of the regency, except Luckput Bunder, which was 
garrisoned by Arabs of whose submission doubts 
were for some time entertained, but it finally sur- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. * 219 

rendered without any military operations being 
undertaken against it. Matters being now settled 
on a firm basis, the regency proceeded to correct 
the innumerable abuses in every department of the 
state, and to discharge the useless and expensive 
levies of troops which Bharmuljee had maintained. 
A British force was subsidized for the defence of 
the country and the support of the government; 
and the honour of guarding.the Kao’s palace was 
given up entirely to the Jharejahs, to the perfect 
exclusion of the low-born wretches whom the late 
Rao had introduced to that responsible duty. 

The tyranny and injustice of Rao Bharmuljee 
had scarcely been crushed, and a new and better 
order of things introduced through the means of 
the British government, when the hand of Provi¬ 
dence seemed to join in depriving Cutch of some 
of the instruments of cruelty. A violent shock of 
an earthquake, attended with some extraordinary 
circumstances, levelled with the dust nearly all the 
walled towns in the country, and anticipated an 
intention, which had often been conceived, of dis¬ 
mantling some of these nests of discontent and trea¬ 
son. The desolation which ensued can scarcely be 
imagined. In Bhooj alone, seven thousand houses 
were rent to their foundations, and twelve hun¬ 
dred persons buried in the ruins. Anjar suffered 
equally in proportion, and much injury was sus¬ 
tained, with the loss of many lives, at Mandavie 
and other large towns. The phenomena which 


220 


SKETCH OF THE 


accompanied this awful visitation, it is unnecessary 
to detail here, as they have already, I understand, 
been published in the Transactions of the Literary 
Society of Bombay. 

In conformity with the spirit of the measures 
which have been detailed in these pages, and, as 
better calculated to maintain a firm and honourable 
alliance between the two states, a new treaty, con¬ 
taining, in addition to most of the articles of that 
of 1816 , many others, adapted to the improved 
condition of affairs, was shortly after concluded 
between the governments. It will be seen on a 
reference to it, that the British government wished 
carefully to abstain from all interference in the 
Rao’s internal authority; whilst it agreed to gua¬ 
rantee his power and the 6( integrity of his domi¬ 
nions” from all enemies, foreign and domestic. A 
boon of a similar description was extended to the 
Jharejah chiefs, who had established a claim on us 
by their conduct during the late revolution, and 
whose possessions were also secured to them on 
their consenting to preserve their female children. 
In return for these important concessions, the ad¬ 
vantages derived by the British government are 
almost nominal; for, with the exception of an an¬ 
nual subsidy of two lacs and eighty thousand ru¬ 
pees, equal to the support of one-lialf of the force 
which has been generally required, we receive no¬ 
thing from the Bhooj durbar, to which Anjar and 
its dependencies have since been restored. In enu- 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


221 


•merating the benefits of the alliance, we must not 
omit, however, the grand victory in favour of hu¬ 
manity in the abolition of infanticide; a horrid prac¬ 
tice, which it has been our object, ever since our 
connexion with Cutch and Kattiwar, to put a stop 
to, and which we have certainly succeeded in di¬ 
minishing in these countries. 

If we take into consideration the dreadful state of 
affairs which had existed for years before we enter¬ 
ed Cutch, we must conclude, that the new arrange¬ 
ments were entirely in favour of that kingdom ; 
for had not the British government interfered 
and the strong arm of power,’ in this instance up¬ 
held by justice, been stretched out to rescue that 
unhappy country from confusion and anarchy, it 
must soon have ceased to be a state ; and it would 
either have fallen into the iron grasp of the military 
despots of Sinde, or, if these had been excluded, Cutch 
would have become a prey, as before, to its own nu¬ 
merous petty tyrants. Indeed, it is impossible to 
conceive in what excesses the profligacy and imbe¬ 
cility of the government, and, we may add, the 
general depravity of the people of this wretched 
province, with whom bloodshed and treason had 
become as “ household words,” might have end¬ 
ed. 


Postscript, 15th June 1829.—Since the period 
at which our narration closes, Cutch has continued 
to enjoy all the blessings of English rule. Dis- 


222 


SKETCH OF THE 


turbance has at intervals existed, but when serious, * 
it has always been the result of famine, or causes 
of a similar nature, which no human government 
could control. The rains of 1823 and 1824 failed 
entirely, and the misery which this occasioned in a 
country solely dependent on the heavens for water 
may be conceived. Many of the inhabitants emi¬ 
grated into Guzerat, and returned after the season 
of scarcity was over; while others less peaceable, 
crossed into Parkur and Sinde, where, combining 
with military mercenaries from these countries, 
and adventurers from the neighbouring provinces, 
they formed themselves into bands, and made in¬ 
cursions intoCutch, several of the villages of which 
they plundered and destroyed. The more favour¬ 
able season of 1825, together with the new and 
less oppressive system in the collection of the Rao’s 
revenue, which was at that time introduced by the 
request of the regency, under the superintendence 
of the assistant resident, had the effect of putting 
an end to the outrages of these plunderers ; most 
of whom had been forced by hunger to adopt their 
lawless proceedings, and on the re-appearance of 
plenty returned quietly to their native fields, which, 
with a few exceptions, the lenity of the durbar al¬ 
lowed them to retain unmolested. 

The protection afforded to these lawless depre¬ 
dators, and to others of the same description, in the 
territories of the Sinde government, has brought us 
at different times into collision with the Ameers; 

3 


HISTORY oF CUTCH. 


223 


and we have been forced on two occasions (1820 and 
1825,) to assemble large bodies of troops in Cutch, 
in order to awe these chiefs into a maintenance of 
their treaties. By a new agreement concluded 
between the British and Cutch governments in 
1822, Anjar and its dependencies were restored 
to the Rao, on his consenting to pay to us yearly 
the estimated revenue, viz. eighty-eight thousand 
rupees; making the entire sum we annually receive 
from his Highness to amount to two lacs, eighty- 
eight thousand rupees. From the famine which 
has been mentioned and other causes, this subsidy 
has been frequently ill paid, sometimes even remit¬ 
ted, and altogether has proved totally inadequate 
to support the heavy expences which have been 
entailed on us by our connexion with Cutch. Our 
government, it is true, have gained this province 
as a frontier to our great and glorious empire; 
but its advantages in that respect are even doubt¬ 
ful ; while, from its being a constant and unsatis¬ 
factory drain on our finances, the evils arising from 
the alliance have been great and positive. On this 
subject, however, it becomes not me to enlarge. 

Of the persons alluded to in the foregoing nar¬ 
rative, some further mention may be interesting. 
Captain M‘Murdo died soon after the treaty of 
1819 was concluded,—much too soon for his coun¬ 
try, and to the regret equally of the European 
and native community in Cutch, of which pro¬ 
vince he may be said to have been the deliverer. 


224 


SKETCH OF THE 


He expired, and was buried at Burrunwao, near 
Palanswa, in Wagur, where his tomb is carefully 
protected by the inhabitants, and is an object of 
veneration to which persons still make pilgrimages 
from a distance. Surely an amiable man need seek 
no higher reward than this for his exertions. His 
Highness Bao Dessul has now attained the age 
of thirteen years, and promises to fulfil the expec¬ 
tations of his subjects to the utmost. He has ac¬ 
quired a slight knowledge of the English language, 
from the instructions of the Reverend Mr Gray, 
the chaplain at Bliooj, who has also instilled into 
his youthful mind a taste for astronomy and some 
other sciences. 

His father, the Ex-Rao Bharmuljee, still conti¬ 
nues a prisoner. The unhappy man has not yet 
attained the age of thirty-four, after having passed 
ten years of his life in confinement. When I first 
saw him, five years ago, he was a squalid miser¬ 
able wretch, still in Futteh Mahommed’s palace; 
and, from the period of his dethronement up to that 
time, had never been allowed to see his son, nor, 

I believe, any of the members of his family.' Co¬ 
lonel Pottinger, however, who came to Bhooj as 
resident in 1825, and who, to the credit of his feel¬ 
ings, 

“ Pitied child and parent separated 

By the stern mandate of unfeeling law,” 

determined to ameliorate his condition, and ob- 


4 


HISTORY OF CUTCH. 


225 


tained the sanction of government for his removal 
to a more comfortable residence. Since then he 
has occupied capacious apartments, elegantly fitted 
up, in his son’s palace ; where, though still under 
a guard of British troops, he is allowed every li¬ 
berty consistently with his safe custody. He is 
even permitted to go out twice a-week, when he 
chooses to take an airing, accompanied by an Euro¬ 
pean officer and a few Seapoys. His time is chiefly 
passed in the society of his son, the present Rao, 
in whose lessons he appears to take great interest, 
and for whom he entertains the strongest person¬ 
al attachment. In the placid and dignified deport¬ 
ment of this unfortunate prince, none could now re¬ 
cognize the treacherous murderer, and the cruel des¬ 
pot who inflicted such accumulated miseries on his 
subjects. He is temperate even to a degree, and his 
contrition for the murder of his cousin is believed to 
be heartfelt and sincere. It has, however, evidently 
affected his conscience frequently; and, with the 
view of atoning for his crime, he, in the year 1827, 

i 

sent the ashes of Ladoba, at a great expence, un¬ 
der the charge of a body of Brahmins, to the holy 
city of Benares, to be consigned with appropriate 
ceremonies to the waters of the Ganges. Such 
are the uses of adversity, which has not failed to 
exert its chastening effect upon Rao Bharmuljee. 
I should not omit to mention that the remains of 
Rao Raydhun have also been lately transferred to 
the same sacred city, to expiate his apostacy from 


r 


226 


SKETCH OF THE 


the faith of his forefathers, and the many horrors 
which, as a Mahommedan enthusiast, he brought 
upon his country. 

Kesser Bhyee, the sister of Rao Bharmuljee, was 
eventually married to the Nawaub of Joonaghur, 
in Kattiwar, at whose court she died, it is said, 
by unfair means. The natives of Cutch have a 
story that her death was occasioned by poison in¬ 
serted into her slippers. On the conclusion of the 
first treaty, Mahommed Meyan Sotah, and Sewiraj 
Hunsraj, who were obliged to disgorge immense 
sums of money which they had appropriated to 
their own use, fell into insignificance. They both 
died about the middle of the year 1818, it was 
supposed by poison. Hussain Meyan still lingers 
out a disreputable existence. He pays an annual 
visit to Bhooj, the scene of his father’s greatness, 
and his own dishonour; while his gross and bloated 
appearance denotes the nature of his pursuits. 
Futteh Mahommed had some other sons, but none 
of them are known in Cutch. His daughter, whose 
person Rao Bharmuljee violated, has sunk to the 
lowest state of prostitution. 

After the treaty of 1819, the affairs of Cutch 
fell chiefly to be managed by the British resident, 
the minister Luckmadass, and Sett Ruttunsie Jetta, 
the Jharejah members of the regency declining 
for the most part to interfere. The most impor¬ 
tant of the latter, Visrajee of Roha, was detect¬ 
ed in treasonable communication with some rebels 




HISTORY OF CUTCII. 


227 


in 1825, and was expelled from the administration, 
and banished from the capital; another chief being 
elected in his stead. His expulsion was followed 
in 1827 by the disgrace of Ruttunsie, who Avas 
found to be a defaulter to the state, as well as im¬ 
plicated in several mean and dishonourable transac¬ 
tions, which in the end overwhelmed himself and 
the whole family of Soonderjee Seojee in ruin, and 
lost them the esteem and confidence of the British 
government. Rao Dessul begins to show an in¬ 
terest in public affairs, and frequently holds dur¬ 
bars ; blit the chief management remains as yet 
in the hands of the resident and Luckmadass ; and 
although the latter was believed formerly to be an 
actor in some of the melancholy scenes we have 
described, it is but justice to say, that his conduct 
now is marked by integrity. I may add, that he 
is the only individual at present in Cutcli, who, 
from his birth and general respectability, is enti¬ 
tled to the elevation he has attained. 

17^ April 1830.—Sir John Malcolm, on his visit 
to Bhooj in March 1830, at the request of the na¬ 
tive government, ordered the guard to he entirely 
removed from the Ex-Rao Bharmuljee. 

Bhooj Residency, 1 st January 1830 . 


228 


ADDENDA. 




ADDENDA. 


The following account of the natives of Cutch 
was written for a friend some years ago. Since 
then circumstances are somewhat altered', but ne¬ 
vertheless, I shall add it here. It will be observ¬ 
ed that it contains little, except opinions, in addi¬ 
tion to what Mr Elphinstone and Captain M 4 Mur do 
have said on the same subject. 

The number of inhabitants in Cutch is estimated 
at present at three hundred and fifty thousand, of 
whom one-third are Mahommedans, and the re¬ 
mainder Hindoos of various castes. The popu¬ 
lation was formerly much greater, but many causes 
have lately operated to diminish it. The famine 
and pestilence which ravaged the northern parts 
of Guzerat, Kattiwar, &c. in 1812, deprived Cutch 
of half its inhabitants. The oppressive nature of 
the government during the reigns of the Raos 
Lacca, Ghore, and Rahiden, and the constant wars 
which were carried on by Futteh Mahommed, 
added much to the evil; while, latterly, a succes- 






ADDENDA. 


229 


sion of unfavourable seasons has forced many of 
the Ryots to migrate into Sinde, or to seek for sub¬ 
sistence in other countries. 

The natives of Cutch are stronger and stouter, 
and even handsomer, than those of this part of 
India in general; and some of them, particularly 
the Rajpoots, bear marks of a superior and mili¬ 
tary caste. The women of the higher classes are 
generally considered good-looking. To a casual 
spectator, the whole population appears sunk in 
ignorance and apathy, but closer observation shows 
that this is not the case. The Ryots are found to be 
intelligent to a degree that is surprising ; and the 
ingenuity of the workmen is too generally cele¬ 
brated to require comment here. The palace at 
Mandavie, and the tomb of Rao Lacca at Bhooj, 
are beautiful specimens of their skill in architec¬ 
ture ; while the gold and silver ornaments manu¬ 
factured in Cutch, and so well known and highly 
prized by Europeans, display a taste and nicety of 
hand, unequalled by any Asiatic nation except the 
Chinese. There is scarcely any piece of mechanism 
which, by proper explanation and superintendence, 
may not be imitated by the goldsmiths and car¬ 
penters at Bhooj ; and I have known one of their 
gun-locks passed for an English one, and firmly 
believed to be so. 

I do not believe that the natives of Cutch are 
more immoral than those of Hindoostan in gene¬ 
ral ; but if they are found so, it should be remem- 


230 


ADDENDA. 


bered that their necessities have been greater, and 
that they are but now recovering from the effects 
of an unjust, cruel, and, consequently, demoraliz¬ 
ing government, which continued so late as the 
year 1819- They are, for the most part, peace¬ 
able, obedient, and well-affected to their rulers; 
while robberies and murders are seldom heard of, 
except by the Meyanahs, a class which will be here¬ 
after particularly mentioned. 

The use of opium and the hookah is almost uni¬ 
versal in the country, and in these the Cutchee 
finds a solace for every distress of mind or of body. 
Whether at home or abroad, the hookah is his con¬ 
stant companion. He has recourse to it at every 
moment of leisure; and I have myself travelled with 
horsemen in the service of his Highness the Rao, 
who, although they kept their horses at a smart 
pace, contrived to smoke all the while. In every 
species of native society in Cutch, the influence of 
opium is apparent. The character of the people 
has even acquired a dull and phlegmatic cast from 
its effects, though it must be remarked, that these 
bear no proportion to the immense quantity of the 
drug that is used. With the exception of an un¬ 
willingness on the part of the opium-eaters to exert 
themselves, which probably arises partly from 
natural laziness, the use of this powerful narcotic 
does not appear to destroy the powers of the body, 
nor to enervate the mind to the degree that might 
be imagined. Visrajee, the Jharejah chief of Rolia, 




ADDENDA. 


231 


whose name lias been famous in the history of 
Cutch for the last sixty years, has, during the 
whole of his life, indulged freely in opium, and has 
suffered so little from its debilitating effects, that 
he was last year detected in ambitious projects 
against the government, and banished to his own 
castle in consequence. He is now at the age of 
eighty, paralyzed by years, but his mind is unim¬ 
paired. This case is not a singular one ; and, on 
investigation, I am convinced it will be found 
in general, that the natives do not suffer much 
from the use of opium. No doubt, however, East 
Indian opium is less deleterious in its effects than 
that which is produced in Turkey. 

It is generally taken in small cups rubbed up 
with water, and the quantities that are swallowed 
would almost exceed belief. Its stimulating effects 
are sometimes very apparent. On one occasion, I 
had made a very fatiguing night march with a 
Cutchee horseman. In the morning, after having 
travelled above thirty miles, I was obliged to as¬ 
sent to his proposal of halting for a few minutes, 
which he employed in sharing a quantity of about 
two drachms of opium between himself and his jad¬ 
ed horse. The effect of the dose was soon evident 
on both ; for the horse finished a journey of forty 
miles with great apparent facility, and the rider 
absolutely became more active and intelligent. 

With the exception of the Jharejah Rajpoots, 
the Hindoos of Cutch do not differ from those of 


232 


ADDENDA. 


other parts of India. The Jharejahs are the aris¬ 
tocracy of the country, and are all more or less con¬ 
nected with the family of the Rao. They trace their 
descent from Sacko Goraro, a prince who reigned 
in Sinde a thousand years ago, four of whose sons, 
Moor, Oner, Phool, and Munyabhaee, emigrated 
into Cutch, on account of some family dissensions. 
The two last had no issue. The posterity of Moor 
ended in the third generation at Sacko Phoolanee, 
whose name is still known and celebrated through¬ 
out this province. From Oner descended the pre¬ 
sent Jam of Nuwanuggur, and the Rajpoot Jhare¬ 
jahs of Cutch. Hoomeerjee, one of his descendants 
four hundred years ago, had four sons, Khenjar, 
Rhayebjee, Sayebjee, and Aleyajee. From the 
first of these the Rao is lineally descended ; and 
all the present Jharejahs, with a few exceptions, 
who claim still higher birth, derive their origin 
from the other three. 

There are about two hundred and fifty Jharejah 
chiefs in Cutch. All of them hold their lands in 
feu from the Rao, as their liege-lord, for services 
they or their ancestors have performed, or for re¬ 
lationship to his family. They are termed the 
Ehyaud, or brotherhood of the Rao, and are his 
hereditary advisers. On any male child being born 
in his Highness’s family, a portion of the royal 
domains is allotted to him and his successors. The 
same principle is carried into effect in the families 
of the nobles, whose lands are subdivided for the 


ADDENDA. 


233 


benefit of their relations, who are called theBhyaud 
ot the chief. It is evident that this system would 
soon reduce the whole property into an immense 
number of small portions; but the barbarity of 
their customs has afforded a check to this in the 
inhuman practice of infanticide. This, it is known, 
is not uncommon among the Rajpoots of India. 
The Jharejahs of Cutch trace the custom to Jarrah, 
one of the posterity of Oner, above-mentioned, from 
whom they derive their name, and who first show¬ 
ed the example, by putting to death seven of his 
daughters, seven hundred years ago. His descen¬ 
dants, it is to be feared, have not confined their 
practice to females only. 

The humanity of the British government since 
the period of its connexion with Cutch, has been 
much exerted in trying to check this horrid cus¬ 
tom ; but the prejudices which lead to it are so 
firmly rooted, and the interest of the Rajpoot fa¬ 
milies is so much identified in its continuance, that 
I have no doubt it is still secretly carried on in the 
private recesses of the Jharejahs* forts, where it 
is impossible to watch them. Indeed, the returns 
furnished to the Bhooj durbar show such an im¬ 
mense disproportion between their male and female 
children, that the fact can scarcely be disputed. 
The infants, it is said, are usually put to death by 
opium applied to the breast of the mother, or are 
drowned in milk. 

The Jharejahs intermarry with the families of 


234 


ADDENDA. 


other Rajpoots ; but as they are all descended from 
a common ancestor, they consider it incestuous to 
unite themselves with the women of their own 
tribe; and to this unfortunate regulation of their 
caste may be attributed in a great degree their ad¬ 
herence to infanticide. Nuns and vestals meet 
with no respect in Indian society; indeed, it is a 
disgrace to a woman and her relations if she is not 
married and settled with her husband at an age 
which would be considered childhood in England. 
No respectable matches can be found in Cutch or 
the neighbouringcountries for the Jharej ah females; 
and the consequence unhappily is, that their pre¬ 
servation only leads to shame and prostitution. 
This is an evil arising from a state of society which 
the hand of Omnipotence alone can suddenly im¬ 
prove ; though it is to be hoped, that, by the con¬ 
tinuance of our rule, and the gradual dissemination 
of enlightened opinions, it will eventually cease. 
No government can do more than ours has done 
to suppress infanticide; and the treaty of 1819 with 
Cutch, is a proof of the extraordinary sacrifices 
which have been made to gain this object. By a 
provision in that document, we engaged separately 
to protect the possessions of all the Jharej ah chiefs, 
on their consenting to preserve their female chil¬ 
dren ; thus entering into a treaty not only with the 
prince of the country, but also with two or three 
hundred of his nobles, and thereby cementing an 
alliance from which, however detrimental to our 

4 


ADDENDA. 


235 


interests, or ruinous to our finances, we can never 
be relieved. It is needless almost to add, that in¬ 
fanticide, when perpetrated, is practised so secretly 
as to defy all detection. As a proof of the pride 
and cruelty of the Cutch Rajpoots, I may here 
mention, that at the battle of Jarrah in 1762, they 
massacred all their women and children, amounting 
to several thousands, to prevent their falling into 
the hands of Sindians. 

The Jharejahs have a tradition that, when they 
first entered Cutch they were Mahommedans, but 
that two hundred years afterwards, when the 
whole power of the country was in their hands, 
they resumed the name and customs of the Hin¬ 
doos ; and they have been considered Rajpoots ever 
since. In a religion which admits of no proselytes, 
this is astonishing; but the story seems well sup¬ 
ported by circumstances. They still retain many 
Mahommedan customs ; they take oaths equally on 
the Koran and Shastras ; and they refer sometimes 
to the one and sometimes to the other on subjects of 
law and morality. They employ Mussulman books, 
and eat from their hands, and, to crown ah, his 
Highness the Rao, when he appears in public, ah 
ternately worships God in a Hindoo pagoda and 
a Mahommedan mosque. Rao Lucca erected a 
temple at Rhooj to the memory of a famous saint 
of Bagdad, the Peeran Peer, about the middle of last 
century, and his descendant, Rao Dessul, in person, 
lays his oblations at the shrine generally every Fri- 


236 


ADDENDA. 


day, which is the Mahornmedan day of prayer. The 
Bhooj durbar fits out a ship annually at Mandavie to 
convey pilgrims to Mecca, who are fed and support¬ 
ed during the voyage by the liberality of the Rao ; 
and, although this is without doubt a remnant of 
the Mogul sway, and was, I believe, the tenure by 
which the sovereigns of Cutch held their dominions 
from the Delhi emperors ; the fact of its being still 
maintained isaproof, with the others, of the anoma¬ 
lous opinions which the Jharejalis entertain on the 
subject of religion. The royal family of Cutch have 
never objected to form matrimonial alliances with 
Mahoinmedans when the match was suitable, or 
when a political object was to be gained. Rao 
Gore gave one of his female relations in marriage 
to Surufraz Khan, a prince of the house of Calora 
in Sinde ; and more lately, Kesser Bliye, the sister 
of Rao Bharmuljee, was united to the Nawaub of 
Joonaghur. 

The Mahoinmedans of Cutch are of the same 
degenerate caste as is to be found throughout the 
western side of India. The only class particular¬ 
ly worthy of notice, as being peculiar in habits and 
customs, is the Meeanahs, who have of late at¬ 
tracted attention by their plunders and depreda¬ 
tions. 

The Meeanahs claim the same descent as the 
Jharejalis, and boast, that, while the latter be¬ 
came apostates to the Mahornmedan creed, they 

3 . 




ADDENDA. 


237 


remained steady in tlie faith. Be this as it may, 
they have lost all the honour and respectability of 
the Rajpoots, and have been, from time immemo¬ 
rial, a body of outcasts and marauders, ready on 
all occasions to take advantage of the troubles of 
the state to commit their outrages. 

It may excite surprise that during so many 
centuries these plunderers should have been per¬ 
mitted to remain as a scourge to Cutch ; but the 
question is solved when we find, that, though al¬ 
ways injurious to the people, they were frequently 
useful to the government, under whose standard, 
at the season of exaction and oppression, they ge¬ 
nerally ranged themselves, and from which, even, 
they have at various times received grants of land. 
As an instance of their services, it may be men¬ 
tioned, that the immense army of the Nawaub of 
Alimedabad, which invaded Cutch in 1718, was 
forced to evacuate it, chiefly from all its supplies 
being cut off by the Meeanahs. 

The vigour of Futteh Mahommed’s govern¬ 
ment required no assistance from outlaws, and as 
their depredations had arisen to a height former¬ 
ly unknown, at the confused period at which his 
power commenced, one of his first measures was 
to endeavour to extirpate them from Cutch. In 
this he nearly succeeded ; but of late years several 
of them returned and lived in villages among the 
hills, peculiar to themselves, where they obtained 
a scanty subsistence by cultivating the fields. The 


ADDENDA. 


238 

unfortunate seasons of 1823 and 1824 forced many 
of them to emigrate into Sinde, where, uniting 
with other adventurers, they formed themselves 
into bands, and made forays into Cutch, several 
of the villages of which they burned and plundered. 

The reappearance of plenty in 1825 has brought 
back many of them to their fields, which the 
lenity of government now allows them to retain 
unmolested ; while the others have either fixed 
their residence in Sinde, awaiting a favourable op¬ 
portunity to review their incursions, or have paid 
the penalty of their offences against the durbar. 
The bold and determined manner in which most 
of the latter have met their fate at the place of 
execution is worthy almost of antiquity, and cer¬ 
tainly of a better cause. One of their chiefs, named 
Oomriah, was captured by a detachment of our 
troops in a skirmish in April last, and was shortly 
after blown from the mouth of a cannon, according 
to the usual custom of capital punishment in Cutch. 
Though emaciated with confinement and the pain 
of his wounds, he stepped forward to meet death 
in this appalling shape with his .spirit undaunted ; 
and after seeing some of his companions blown to 
atoms, resolutely walked up to the instrument of 
his destruction, to which he declined to be tied, 
and placing his body to the muzzle, demanded 
permission to be his own executioner. The rem¬ 
nant of these “ Children of the Mist” still retain 
all the predatory customs and habits of their fore- 




ADDENDA. 


239 


fathers. Their daring courage and their adroitness 
make them a constant object of dread to the peace¬ 
ful villager ; and the confidence of the inhabitants 
of Cutch is only maintained by posts of British 
troops stationed at various places. The Meeanahs 
may complain that there is a curse upon their 
race; their name is associated with every thing 
that is atrocious; no crime is committed in Cutch 
that is not attributed to their hands ; and all 
classes join in execration of them. 

Postscript, June 1829-— The above account 
was written in the beginning of 1826, when Cutch 
was suffering from the depredations of these plun¬ 
derers. Since then a succession of good seasons 
and a steady and improved system of administra¬ 
tion have altered the aspect of affairs, and the 
Meeanahs are now seldom- heard of. In 1827, 
the Bhooj durbar published a general pardon for 
all their past offences; a measure as politic as it 
was merciful, and which has been attended by the 
happy effect of bringing back nearly all those who 
had remained in Sinde. 




















MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


OF 

BHOOJ. 


Q 


Bhooj Residency , September 167/j, 1828. 


To THE SECRETARY OF THE 

Medical Board, Bombay, 

Sir,—In obedience to your letter of the 1st instant, 
which reached me this morning, I proceed without delay 
to submit to the Medical Board, answers to the various 
questions contained in your circular to Superintending 
Surgeons, of the 23d of April 1827, together with such 
general remarks on the medical topography of Bhooj as 
occur to me.—I have the honour to he, &c. 


James Burnes. 


MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


OF 

BHOOJ. 


The province of Cutch extends between the six¬ 
ty-eighth and seventy-second degrees of longitude 
east of Greenwich, and the twenty-second and 
twenty-fourth degrees of north latitude. 

Its extreme length does not exceed a hundred 
and sixty-five miles from east to west. Its breadth 
from north to south is fifty-two miles at the wid¬ 
est part, and only fifteen at the narrowest. 

It has the Gulf of Cutch and the Indian Ocean 
to the south ; the great Northern Runn, which is 
flooded with salt water from May to October 
every year, on the north and east; and the Koree 
River, or Eastern Branch of the Indus, to the 
west. 

The general appearance of Cutch is barren and 
uninteresting. Most of the villages are ruinous 



244 


MEDICAL TOPOGKAPIIY 


and dilapidated, bearing marks alike of the shocks 
of nature and the destructive powers of man. 
A few fields in their neighbourhood are cultivat¬ 
ed, while the remainder of the country presents 
nothing to the view but a rocky and sandy waste, 
which in many places is scarcely relieved by a 
show of vegetation. Water is scarce, and often 
brackish ; arid although the population does not 
exceed three hundred and fifty thousand souls, the 
produce of the land under cultivation is insuffi¬ 
cient for their support; so that Cutcli, even in the 
best seasons, is dependent on Sinde for supplies of 
grain. 

The climate for nine months in the year is 
comparatively temperate and agreeable. The ap¬ 
proach of October is dreaded equally by the na¬ 
tive and European population as extremely un¬ 
healthy and oppressive. The temperature in the 
hot season is high ; and a residency in the can¬ 
tonment of Bhooj, during the months of April 
and May, is rendered almost intolerable by hur¬ 
ricanes, which envelope the houses in dust and 
sand, and from which glass windows are scarcely 
a protection. 

The monsoon is always moderate, and some¬ 
times fails altogether. It would almost appear 
that those seasons in which it has failed, although 
the want of rain in a country almost entirely de¬ 
pendent for water on the firmament must ever 
be attended with the greatest distress and misery 


OF BHOOJ. 


245 


to the native population, have been the most fa- 
vourable for the maintenance of health in the 
European constitution. Cutch was very healthy 
in the years 1823 and 1824, but the contrary, in 
a melancholy degree, in 1825, after a considerable 
monsoon. 

Cutch is considered unhealthy by the natives 
of other parts of the Bombay Residency ; and 
they can only be induced to visit it by the greater 
pay and advantages of a field station. There 
seems no great reason for this prejudice ; for, I 
believe that a reference to the hospital returns of 
the native regiments at Bhooj would show that 
the troops are as healthy there as in most other 
places. I must confess, however, that I have 
known many persons from Bombay, servants in 
particular, perfectly useless from continued sick¬ 
ness in Cutch, who recovered their health and 
energies the moment they left it. 

The most common diseases among the natives 
are fever and rheumatism ; and it may be remark¬ 
ed, that cholera morbus, which has been so fatal 
in the neighbouring countries, has never made 
much progress in Cutch. Fever is the prevailing 
disease among Europeans. From personal expe¬ 
rience, I may say that the first attacks have al¬ 
ways been the most dangerous; and have usually 
been in the form of bilious remittents, leaving be¬ 
hind them a tendency to intermittent fever, liable 
to produce a paroxysm on any exciting cause, 


246 


MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


which the patient has never been able entirely to 
throw off. Indeed, with all the advantages of 
sea air, I never was at any station where recove¬ 
ries from fever were so tedious and incomplete as 
in Cutch. 

In elucidation of this fact, which, without ex¬ 
planation, might be considered a mere opinion, I 
can state, that, of the only five officers now at 
Bhooj, including myself, who have been resident 
for three years in Cutch, every one is subject to 
periodical paroxysms in the manner I have men¬ 
tioned ; and that scarcely one has ever been en¬ 
tirely free from them for six months since the first 
grand attack, which, in every case, was shortly 
after arriving at the station. Luckily the parox¬ 
ysms are never very severe ; and, as the sulphate 
of quinine is a certain check, the inconvenience is 
only temporary, while the constitution, from being 
habituated, appears to suffer but little injury. 

Some stations in Cutch are particularly noxious, 
such as Narrona, a village in a marsh, twenty- 
four miles north-east of Bhooj, near the Runn, 
where no troops are now stationed ; and Luckput 
Bunder, where the water is so bad, that there is 
a tradition throughout the country, (silly, indeed, 
but still illustrative of the native prejudice against 
it,) that a draught of it impairs the powers of 
man. Mandavie is generally a delightful and 
healthy station ; and the Cutch government, with 
great liberality, have lately fitted up the old palace 

4 


OF BHOOJ. 


247 


of the Rao at that place in the most comfortable 
manner for the sick officers of the brigade. Still 
patients do not appear to me to make good reco¬ 
veries there from serious illnesses ; and there are 
times, particularly in October, when being at 
the sea-coast in Cutch is little protection against 
attacks of disease. I have known nine Euro¬ 
peans, being all who were at Mandavie at the 
time, in bed with fever at the same moment, and 
scarcely a native servant well enough to be able 
to attend on them, though some of the party had 
left Bhooj in health a few days previous. 

The oppression in the atmosphere about the 
close of the monsoon at Mandavie is excessive ; 
and the hot wind in May is sometimes so scorch¬ 
ing, that its effects last year were justly compared 
by a gentleman to the feeling produced by stand¬ 
ing near an immense quantity of burning grass. 

Were I permitted to deliver an opinion, I 
should say that Cutch, as a healthy station, has 
been far overrated, though I doubt not that it is 
superior to most places in Guzerat. 

The longitude of Bhooj is 69° 45' east; and 
the latitude 23° 15' north ; the parallel of the 
tropic of Cancer being presumed to cross the vil¬ 
lage of Soomrasir on the southern bank of the 
Runn, fifteen miles north of the cantonment. A 
reference to the map, therefore, will show, that, 
with the exception of its extremities, Luckput and 


248 


MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


Beyla, the whole province of Cutch is included 
within the tropics. 

Judging from the moderate inclination in the 
northerly direction towards the Runn, which, from 
the peculiarities of its annual inundation, can be 
but little above the level of the ocean, the canton¬ 
ments of Bhooj cannot be much elevated ; nor is it 
to be estimated at a greater height than a hundred 
feet. The Medical Board are aware of the diffi¬ 
culty of ascertaining elevations of this sort by cor¬ 
rect experiment, but I can state, that water is found 
at Bhooj within a few feet from the surface; 
and on the banks of the Runn within eight or ten 
feet. The site of the city and residency is some¬ 
what lower than that of the cantonment. 

Bhooj is low, in reference to the surrounding 
country, being situated in an amphitheatre of hills, 
some of which approach the city within three or 
four miles, and others within ten or twelve miles. 
In the middle of the plain, detached from all other 
high ground, and rising to a height of five hun¬ 
dred feet, is the hill of Bhoojeah, in which the hill- 
fort is situated, and under the south-west angle of 
which is the cantonment of the Cutch brigade. 

O 

The residency is four miles distant, in a westerly 
direction; and the city of Bhooj about half the 
distance to the north-west. 

The district of Cutch proper, in which Bhooj 
is situated, is the most unproductive of the whole 
province ; the neighbourhood of the city and can- 

3 


OF JBHOOJ. 


249 


tonment being, for nine months in the year, an arid 
parched plain, with scarcely a blade of vegetation. 
The traditions of the country relate, that the early 
princes of Cutch selected this site for their capital 
city, rather from its being central and convenient 
for the extirpation of banditti, than from any ad¬ 
vantages its neighbourhood offered in the way of 
cultivation. 

The nature of the soil in the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of Bhooj is sandy and rocky. The hill 
of Bhoojeah, which bounds and overlooks the camp 
in the north-easterly direction, is a barren rock. 
The water in the cantonments is taken entirely 
from wells, and is generally brackish. The Eu¬ 
ropean officers obtain all they require, for drink¬ 
ing, from a well at the residency,—the only one 
there, also, which contains very good water. But 
the natives do not appear to be so particular; nor 
have I ever heard of any bad effects resulting from 
the water in the cantonment. After a favourable 
monsoon, the tank of Bhooj contains a large quan¬ 
tity of this necessary of life, and is the chief de¬ 
pendence of the inhabitants of the city. 

There are two rivers in the vicinity of Bhooj ; 
one to the eastward, and another to the westward, 
of the cantonment. They both pass from the south 
at a distance of about three miles, and from a 
junction six miles to the north of the city. Like 
all the other rivers in Cutch, they scarcely contain 
any water, except in the rainy season, when they 


250 


MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


are very full and rapid, and discharge themselves 
into the Runn. The beds of both are generally 
sandy, and the banks precipitous and rocky. It is 
in one of the branches of these rivers that the Cutch 
coal is found, seven miles north-east of Bhooj. 

There is no marshy ground in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the cantonment, nor any receptacle for 
water near it. The large tank of Bhooj before- 
mentioned is a mile distant, and bounds the walls of 
the city in a westerly direction, extending towards 
the residency, on some of the compounds of which 
it borders when it is full. It is above a mile and 
a-half in circumference after a favourable mon¬ 
soon, but is generally two-thirds dried up by the 
beginning of June. The deepest part is under 
the town walls, so that it dries up from the direc¬ 
tion next to the residency, and till lately, left some 
marshy ground at the bottom of the gardens ; but 
means having been last year adopted to prevent 
this, the evil no longer exists. The tank is sup¬ 
plied with water from the hills bounding the plain 
of Bhooj to the south, the rivulets from which 
unite and form a nulla, which, after passing 
through the parade ground, and between two of 
the residency compounds, throws its waters into 
the tank. The great northern Runn is thirteen 
or fourteen miles north of Bhooj ; and while it is 
flooded, may be called a marsh for some months 
in the year, after which it becomes dry and en¬ 
crusted with salt. 


OF BHOOJ. 


251 


Tliere is scarcely any vegetation or cultivation 
in the cantonment, there being only one moderate¬ 
ly sized inclosure belonging to the commanding- 
officer, which deserves the name of a garden. It is 
situated to the extreme left of the camp, so as to be 
almost beyond it. There are gardens attached to 
the houses at the residency ; but neither there nor 
in camp is vegetation or rubbish allowed to accu¬ 
mulate. 

The prevailing wind in Cutch is westerly. It 
is a general remark, that it blows between west 
and by south, and west and by north, ten months 
of the year. One month may be allowed for east¬ 
erly winds, which are always unhealthy, unplea¬ 
sant to the feeling, attended, if of long continuance, 
with epidemics and locusts ; and one month to va¬ 
riable winds from different directions. In the 
sickly season at the end of the rains, the wind is 
sometimes from the north-east, when the camp of 
Bhooj has the protection of the hill-fort against 
it. The monsoon in Cutch sets in generally with 
great violence from the north-east before it settles 
in the south-west. 

The thermometer in the hot months is often 
above a hundred. I have seen it a hundred and six 
degrees at Mandavie in April. In the cold months 
I have known it fall to forty degrees, and have 
heard that it was once even at thirty-three degrees. 

The atmosphere in Cutch is dry, the gunpow¬ 
der in the magazines at Bhooj being found to keep 
better than at most other stations. 


MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY 


QKC) 

A & 

Fevers are very prevalent in Cutch at the end 
of the monsoon. It was calculated last year, that 
above a third of the inhabitants of Bhooj had at¬ 
tacks of intermittent in October. I have seldom 
heard of these diseases proving fatal. 

In conclusion, there is scarcely a cantonment 
under the Bombay Presidency, which, in its imme¬ 
diate neighbourhood, is more free from the causes 
that are understood to generate noxious effluvia 
and produce disease than the camp of Bhooj. The 
site of the residency might, no doubt, have been 
more judiciously chosen than on the borders of the 
large lake I have described ; but, as far as my ob¬ 
servation goes, people living there do not suffer 
more than those in other situations. Were we to 
adopt an opinion which I recollect reading some 
years ago in a volume of the Quarterly Review, 
that malaria is the product not only of marshes, 
but also of places where the soil is dry, and the 
ground elevated in volcanic countries, among which 
Cutch may be certainly included, it would be easy 
to account for the insalubrity of the province at 
particular seasons, without calling in the aid of 
swamps and other deleterious causes ; but I may 
be permitted to say, that a far more powerful source 
of fever than any founded on mere theory or opi¬ 
nion seems to present itself, when we take into con¬ 
sideration the geographical situation of Cutch in 
reference to the Runn, and the peculiarities of that 
internal lake ; for the process of evaporation which 
is going on with its greatest vigour from its surface 


OF BHOOJ. 


253 


at tlie very period when, as I have mentioned, en¬ 
demic disease rages at Bliooj. I am aware, that, 
from experiments which have been instituted in 
England and Italy, marsh effluvia are not under¬ 
stood by some to travel to so great a distance as fif¬ 
teen miles from the place of their production ; but 
in tropical countries, where they are much more 
malignant, and generally diffused, the case may be 
different; nor can I believe, that the yearly dry¬ 
ing up of a surface, exceeding in extent six thousand 
square miles, can be accomplished without affect¬ 
ing the atmosphere of the neighbouring provinces, 
and particularly that of Cutch, during the conti¬ 
nuance of some days of an easterly wind. I have 
been led to adopt this opinion, which I submit with 
diffidence, from having observed in the sickly sea¬ 
son of 1825, when fevers and locusts abounded, 
thatthe'wind was generally from north-east, and, in 
addition to what I have stated in a preceding’ para¬ 
graph, the apparent cause of both these calamities. 
I was in Sinde last October, and too unwell during 
the preceding year, to be able to note with attention 
the direction of the winds; but I shall take an op¬ 
portunity of bringing to the notice of the Medical 
Board the result of my future observations. 

THE END. 


EDINBURGH : 
PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, 
O/d Assembly Close. 








. 












' • .i 





















- 

M I y * 













































NOTES—ERRATA, 


Visit to Sinde. 

P. 69. Marginal reference to the Koran omitted. 

P. 80, note, For Major , read Col. Pottinger. 

P. 106. For Wulle , read Wullee , in the beginning of the bottom para¬ 
graph. 

P. 112, line 7th, for hording , read hoarding. 

P. 111. The note regarding the present condition of Omerkote would 
have come in better at p. 119. 

P. 114. For Cade , read Qttazie. 

P. 123. This note on Tatta should have been at page 129; and there 
seems some mistake in the reference to a note in the Bombay 
copy, for none of the notes appear to bear on this part of the 
text. 

P. 129. The note from Crow on the Indus would have been better placed 
on p. 131, immediately before the Alligators. 

History of Cutcii. 

P. 148. For JVungalgee, read Nungulgee. 

P. 148, last line, Ubbrassa , while again, at p. 151, line 3d, it is spelt 
Abbrassa , as it is also at pages 206 and 207* 

P. 158. The term Bhyaud means confederated feudal barons forming a 
defensive brotherhood. It occurs first here. 

P. 210 and 225. For Raydhim , read Rahiden. 

P. 211. For Tukkur , read Tucker. 

P. 217. For failings , read feelings. 
















Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2003 






reservation lechnoloc 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVA 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 









































